The Flu … and BLOODY GRAMMARLY!

So I’m about 85% sure I have had the flu this week; I am not “better,” but I AM turning the corner (thanks much to Tamiflu, I believe!). I realized Tuesday night / very early Wednesday that my body aches were getting very bad, my glands were swelling more, the dizziness was out of control, and my fever kept rising – so I made a judgment call. I believe it would HAVE to be one of the flu shot-covered flus, but that is a-okay with me because I have not been hospitalized or come down with pneumonia or any of the awful things flu can do. On a GOOD FLU YEAR (flu “season”), about 30,000 Americans die from the flu. On a “bad year,” such as last year, the estimates are much higher, about 100,000 (that’s JUST Americans and JUST from the flu / complications of the flu, all of which could be minimized if yinz all got vaccinated!). At any rate, last year during the “bad flu year,” I knew THREE separate individuals who had caught one or two of the flu vaccine-covered viruses and THESE THREE PEOPLE ENDED UP IN ICU – and IN EVERY CASE, THEIR DOCTORS, MILES AND MILES AND MILES AWAY FROM EACH OTHER, SAID THAT EACH INDIVIDUAL WOULD HAVE DIED HAD HE/SHE NOT BEEN VACCINATED. It’s really not a joke. And it’s really not a big deal. This year’s flu vaccination had “more” side effects than “normal” for many people just because the flu viruses that were covered this year overlapped with those covered last year … so if you had the flu last year and/or your body made sufficient antibodies to one of these viruses, you were/are more likely to feel slightly ill after the shot, or so I have been told. THIS DOES NOT MEAN YOU HAVE THE FLU – your body is just trying to figure out what to do antibody-wise! Trust me, even with a mild flu that is vaccine-covered, it is MISERABLE. I have been 100% out of commission for a week now. That is like OUT – like I cannot even get my butt to the grocery store.

At any rate! Now that that rant is over (for now!), I just wanted to point out in one of these “new” Grammarly ads (they drive me bonkers!) the word “explicit” does not really work in that context. It has an innuendo / undertone to it that does not match the topic of the sentence the idiot using Grammarly is trying to “perfect.” Guess what? Language is far from perfect … but if you are trying to “impress your boss” or “write a paper” or do something professional in any capacity, you should really understand the implications of certain words. It’s like the aforementioned “unspeakable tragedy..” Yes, it was sad and yes, it is always horrific to lose loved ones, but an “unspeakable tragedy” it is not. Any decent LAWYER would laugh at that one, I’m quite sure. Again, learn your vocabulary and learn your rhetoric!

At any rate, I am due for my Tamiflu so now I will leave you! I hope you are all having a happy and healthy weekend and I do hope to be back sooner than I have been since things seem to be improving on these last 2 days of Tamiflu! Thank GOD!

❤ Always, Beth