Countdown to Spring – Melt, Baby, Melt

So, let’s see.  As I was writing last week’s entry, the snow was just starting to come down.  When it got to about 3-4”, I went outside and shoveled my deck and walkway.  Oh, look, it’s light and fluffy.  Not too bad.  About two more inches fell, then the temperature went up and it went from light and fluffy to sogged and glazed over snow.  What had been an easy job of clearing it away turned into a cardio workout at the end of it all. 

I normally appreciate the prettiness of ice coating all the tree branches, especially at night.  But at this stage of winter, it was enjoyed for maybe five minutes, then I just wanted it to go with the snow.

Over this past weekend, a lot of that wintery precipitation disappeared with above-freezing temperatures and a whole lot of rain.  There’s still snow out there, but enough of it’s gone now that it’s about a 50:50 mix of white to greens and browns. 

The forecast for my area for today and tomorrow is near to above 50°F, followed by a return to 30s, then 40s, then 50s, then 30s again.  It’s a little uneven, temperature-wise, blamed on anything you chose to blame it on in the moment.  But with temperatures remaining above freezing during the day at least, and no forecast for any precipitation but rain showers for the next ten days, maybe all these wet, white crystalline structures hanging around will go bye-bye and we’ll head into March with bare ground.

Then, it’ll likely snow again.  That’s winter for you.

In a final note, I am on the downside of what may have been either the flu or a flu-like illness.  Sore throat, body aches, chills, fatigue, and a decent chunk of fever on top of sneezes, sniffles and barking like a seal.  Definitely not a cold.  I normally don’t get sick during the winter, but this year was an exception.  Just another reason for not liking this winter season anymore, eh?

Only 34 days until Spring

On Going Into Work Sick

I am presently home from work due to what is either the flu or a flu-like illness.  Am I going to go out of my way to find out which one it is?  Seriously?  It doesn’t matter.

What matters, at least to me, is that I broke one of my own cardinal rules yesterday.  I went into work with a fever.  I knew I was running a slight fever the night before and deliberately did not check my temperature in the morning because I knew we were short-staffed.  By the time I got home yesterday, my slight fever of 99.4°F had turned into 100.8°F.  I felt miserable and was starting to sound pleasant on the phone.  No, really.  When my voice initially gets affected by some upper respiratory tract thing, it takes on this really nice quality that I can’t recreate when I’m feeling better. 

I digress.  I’m here to discuss going in to work sick because, well, gee, they’re already down staff and they need you there.  Plus you don’t get paid if you’re not there.  No, no one said that to me except me.  Sometimes, the little voice at the back of my brain is not speaking from a place of logic and reason.

What you’re doing when you go in sick is subject those around you to what you have.  Colds and flus are passed in the air and in contact with things you are in contact with (phones, equipment, etc.).  People can sluice down every square inch of the place with disinfectant during and after your sick person is there and it still will not prevent it from potentially being passed to other workers and even the general public.

Because I recognized the risk of infection in even my earliest days of employment, I never, ever went into work with a temperature above 98.6°F.  Yes, people grumbled when they were inconvenienced by my absence, but they got over it.  I also encouraged similar behavior in my fellow employees.  Was I listened to?  Of course not.  I can’t tell you how many times people came in sick anyway.

No one, I repeat, NO ONE is indispensable.  If you take a day off, if you take a vacation, what do you think happens when you’re not there?  Answer, things continue.  People take up the slack and things continue.  Depending on the size of the business, yes, your normal contribution will likely be missed, but they’ll make do without you.  Any place that crumbles when people are absent needs an overhaul.

This flu season has been particularly brutal.  Those who say it’s because the flu shot was ineffectual aren’t seeing the real issue.  We need to work to prevent the spread.  Certainly, handwashing and proper cleaning/disinfecting play a huge part.  But, another important part of that is setting some ground rules with regard to coming to work under less than perfect health conditions.  Whether those rules are made by the employer or by self, they need to be adhered to. 

I forgot that yesterday.  That will not happen again. 

Flu Shot Versus Flu–The Lesser of Two Evils

This year, New York State sent down a mandate that required people who work in healthcare facilities either to have the flu shot or they would be required to wear a mask the entire time they were at work.  Not just when in contact with patients, but the entire time they were on the clock and on the premises.  The purpose of both options was to stem the tide of the flu season.  Okay, that didn’t work out as well as everyone might have hoped ‘cause the outbreak of flu here in the U.S. qualifies as epidemic.

Not absolutely requiring the shot is said to be an attempt to give people who don’t want to get the shot for whatever reason an alternative.  Nobody’s fooling me.  If you ever had to wear a mask that covers your nose and mouth for 8-10 hours straight, you already know how annoying and even inconvenient it can get.  If you had to wear it every day you worked, the words “absurd”, “ridiculous” “silly” and “stupid” might wander through your brain on a regular basis.  Yet, the mask must remain regardless of the mantra that those words become in your head.  Yes, it’s an alternative to getting the shot, but the inconvenience of a masked existence is also a way of getting people to comply without actually insisting on it.

Some object to the flu shot for religious reasons.  Even though I’ve heard the arguments as to why someone’s faith says that they shouldn’t take any vaccination, I still don’t get it, but I’ll respect their right to be flu shot-free.  There are also those who work in hospitals, etc. who object to getting the flu shot because they just don’t want it.  There are also some in that group who think it’s absurd to insist they get the shot when the public is still being exposed to the flu out in the great wide non-hospital world.  They’re right about that, but there’s something to the argument of taking extra steps in a hospital, nursing home or similar healthcare setting where some patients’ immune systems might not be up to par due to age, disease, or medications.

Truth is, anyone who objects to getting the flu shot, unless they’re allergic to some portion of it, is really doing so because they don’t want to be told what to do, either by a government entity or in general.  I can relate.  I’m a quiet little maverick myself and. up until a few years ago, I never got a flu shot, either.  It was when New York State required that everyone who worked in a healthcare setting get the adjunct shot for the H1N1 flu virus a few years ago that I reluctantly started lining up for the flu shot ow-ee.  Granted, my decision to cave in at that time was partly based in wanting to keep my paychecks rolling in, but compliance is compliance.  My argument was that I didn’t like the reaction I always had to every vaccination/immunization I got.  Yup, with every single shot, regardless of what it was for, I’d run a fever of over 101°F, get muscle aches and just get generally bitchy for 24-36 hours.  Then, I started to look at it from the perspective of people who got the flu and were so sick with it, some to the point of dying from it, and I decided that I could put up with my side effects on a once a year basis.  Now, I just get the shot on a Friday so no one has to listen to me whine the next day or so.

Many years ago, I had the flu.  It was just over a week of a 102-103°F fever, body aches, coughing, sneezing, sinus and chest congestion, and feeling like an 18-wheeler had run me over, slammed the truck into reverse and ran me over one more time for good measure.  Used up all my sick time and didn’t get to enjoy a hooky day from work for quite a while after that.  And yet, it wasn’t until 20 years later that I started to regularly get the shot to minimize the risk of repeating anything similar to that episode ever again.  Through the luck of the draw, I never came down with another strain of flu.  Oh, you didn’t know there was more than one?  Ha-ha – silly reader.

Some think that because they got sick after getting the flu shot that the shot gave them the flu.  Uh, no.  Anyone who understands the immune process and how modern vaccines do their thing will tell you it doesn’t work that way.  It takes about two weeks for the immunity to kick in to the max.  If you got sick during that time, either you’re like me and had side effects which weren’t flu, or you had something that was flu-like but wasn’t influenza, or somebody already exposed you to the flu, you were destined to get it and the timing just sucked.  Get over it. 

I understand the reluctance, fellow mavericks, and if you can live with wearing a mask all the live long day, then more power to you.  But, if you have to comply with getting immunized to get into school and college, or even travel the world,  what’s having one more needle once a year?  When you stop thinking about yourselves and start thinking about the people who can’t fight the flu fight as well as you, you might want to reconsider for their sakes.  Give it some thought.