Swine Flu Terror!

Guys, the Swine Flu is here!!!

Seriously, it's here.

And I am scared.

Have you ever had the full-on flu? I am not talking about the times you feel sick, or achy, or feverish...I mean influenza! Well I have, and it is NOT fun. I had two different strains at once, Influenza A and Influenza B. I have never been so sick. I was literally in bed for 10 days. It was terrible. I have had pneumonia twice, gastritis, etc...but never felt as bad as I did when I had the flu. The only relief that I found was when I took a bath, but even then I had to rest my head on the side of the tub. I was that sick. It was terrible.

So, it is no surprise that when the Swine Flu hysteria hit, I was hysterical. It's true, I was hysterical. I started washing my hand compulsively. I was posting all about it on Facebook, I was glued to NPR, etc. I was freaked out about this.

Let me tell you how my lovely friends at Make-A-Wish responded to my hysteria.

This was probably during the first 2 weeks of the outbreak. We were discussing as a staff what we could do to make sure that we were prepared if any of us (or our wish families) became infected. It's important that we keep a clean building because our wish kids come here with really terrible immune systems and we didn't want to cause any problems.

Back to the story...

Every morning we have a small meeting in our workroom. It usually lasts just 5-10 minutes and pretty much gives everyone a chance to talk about what they have going on that day. Well, this particular morning, I was late (which I never am). I walked straight into the workroom to find all of the staff members wearing masks.

My first reaction was that this was a joke. In fact I said sarcastically "Oh, phew! Thank goodness! Now we are safe!"

No one laughed.

Then, Christine said, "No, Becky, this is real. The Health Department came by this morning. We had a wish family here last night that just came back from Mexico. As a precaution they want us to wear these masks."

I believed them.

Why wouldn't I believe them!? They all kept a straight face...ok not true they were all smiling under their masks but I obviously couldn't see them.

I quickly grabbed my mask and put it on. For the next 3 hours I wore the damn thing. I wore it at my desk. It was uncomfortable, I felt short of breath, etc. I wanted to take it off buy everytime an office member would walk by me, they had on their mask. I didn't want to put anyone at risk!

By lunch time my lovely coworkers couldn't hold it in any longer. They told me it was all a joke. Apparently they started an email chain talking about how they wanted to "get Becky". Krachel's husband brought home the masks and they were all in on it.

I totally got punk'd by Make-A-Wish.

And that is why I:
1). Am scared of Swine Flu (totally desperate for my vaccine)
2). Love my co-workers.

But don't worry, I totally deserved it. I got Frank and Mike about a year before, so this was my payback.

Yes, that is some of their office supplies in Jell-O.