Out Of Left Field!

Most of the setbacks in my running career have always come as a surprise to me.....now, having a guy actually hit you with his truck out on the left side of your body as you are entering a trail is pretty much a classic surprise out of left field , still, most other injuries like my meniscus snapping, my lumbar disk herniating, etc, are always a surprise intrusion on what I sadly expect to be my linear path to obtaining my goals. So once again, a visitor has arrived from left field.
After the race on Superbowl Sunday, Deb and I made two stops....one at Starbucks, the other at Sam's club. Now, were I a betting man (which I am), I would guess we picked up the virus from the hummer shopping cart at Sam's Club. Considering the volume of folks there slobbering on each other and spewing their germs everywhere in the fight for a bigger portion of something to mash into their sucking oral tubes, I will stick with that bet. On Wednesday, I started to have some minor bronchial irritation that I attributed to lots of cold dry air and the deep wind sucking that comes with racing. But then Deb said....hey honey, do you have a sore throat, headache, and burning chest? On Friday, the shit hit the proverbial fan, and we were two bed bound hackers with fevers, chills, muscle aches, bouncing around the bed trying to suck air like fish on a dock. After finally having to sleep in a chair on monday night for fear of asphyxiating, I went to the doctor on tuesday. He of course first yelled at me for forgetting my flu shot for the first time in 6 years, but reminded me that I am an old asthmatic, and that this shit could kill me (yah, that will REALLY be something out of left field!). I got two shots in the ass on both sides. Now since I have such little ass to work with, and they were big shots, it hurts like hell to sit today. One was an antibiotic, the other ampicillin. He gave me a 20 minute nebulizer treatment with steriods, and sent me off with a prescription for a copd persons inhaler for the next month. And as I left, he said this is the H1N1 flu, not something to be trifled with.
So when I got home, I looked it up, and this year, out west, it is the return of a variation of the 2009 bird flu epidemic that killed so many young folks in Mexico City and caused that fear mongering lunatic Wolf Blitzer to say, early in its spread to California, "it has come to America, and Americans are gonna die". Well they have, but oddly even more have this year in California so far than in 2009. It seemed damn funny then, now not so much!
So Deb and I are still sick, although the night sweats have stopped, and our breathing is not terminal. I am sharing my copd inhaler with her. My race plans for March are officially cancelled. Hopefully I will not miss more than a week of running, and will be able to look forward to a race I planned to run in mid April. Beware....something is always coming out of left field.....