We Be Feeling Purely Punk...

I went to the doctor on Tuesday for my annual physical. Blood work mostly okay... glucose okay, electrolytes fine, liver enzymes amazingly okay in spite of the quantities of Jack Daniel's I've imbibed this past year, cholesterol still up a little, but getting better, blood pressure normal - now to try to make that happen without drug assists. Inoculations... way out of date and, well, that's the crux of the issue...

For years I've fought inoculations because I recall being made deathly ill back in my (very) younger years by some kind of "flu shot". Besides, my asthma notwithstanding (and my asthma doctor is constantly howling at me to get a flu and pneumonia shot), I haven't had a sick day in quite a few years... not from the flu, and certainly nothing resembling pneumonia. My PC (primary care) doctor assured me that nasty reaction was from years ago, and that current inoculations are all made of synthetic stuff and don't contain any "bad critters" any more, and, thus I shouldn't be concerned about any weirdness. Gullible me... I caved, and allowed myself to be subjected to her suggested barrage of "preventative aids"...

As a result, I've spent the past two days in the throes of flu symptoms that would lay any normal person low. I, being far from normal, have been set on my ear, and feel like I've been shot at and missed, and shit at and hit. Perhaps it was all due to the fact that, in addition to the flu shot, I also received a pneumonia shot, a tetanus/whooping cough shot, and a shingles vaccine. It all happened so fast... the cute, chipper little nurse breezed into the exam room and poked me with flu and pneumonia in the right arm, and shingles and tetanus/whooping cough in the left before I knew what hit me. Had I not been reeling from a rather painful breast exam, and gritting my teeth behind that horribly invasive, but necessary, exam and pap smear only a woman would understand, I might have decided to protest such a bombardment of needles coming my way.

A good friend told me my experience sounded like what was done to him the day he joined the Army. That's a comment I've heard many times in the past from a lot of guys, so, in addition to my endless thanks and appreciation for anyone who served in any way in The Military... I feel for you guys!