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What's an asthmatic to do? For the first time since May last year, I've had a serious bout of breathing trouble - not as bad as then, since I took action this time before my voice vanished, but still enough to warrant a steroid burst of mood-shifting drugs which I'll be on for the next few days. I'd probably be in a constant massive grump if not for the constant love and care of The Missus. As a result, I was off sick on Thursday and Friday and have continued to be wheezy all weekend.
So it's Monday tomorrow and here's my worry. On the one hand, I don't want to take any more time off work sick, knowing the hassle that would follow, especially as my workplace uses the 'Bradford factor' for sick leave monitoring. On t'other, I don't want to go to work and pick up H1N1 from one of my many sneezing colleagues while my lungs are weak, ending up in hospital. On t'other other hand, I'd hate to appear like some hysterical hypercondriac who's been swept up in the swine flu media frenzy. On t'other other other hand, going to the GP last week made it clear just how worried doctors et al are about people classed as 'at risk' picking up H1N1, hence the roll-out of vaccine to us risky types this month, as did Fergus Walsh's recent blog post and advisory Q&A from Asthma UK.Infuriatingly, I was due to get the H1N1 vaccine this coming Wednesday, but can't whilst on these here steroids, so I need to get better before getting the jab. And my worry this evening is - if I go to work pre-vaccine, still wheezy, am I leaving myself unnecessarily vulnerable to infection, given the risk that infection carries for my feckless lungs and the apparent propensity for others in my open-plan workplace to come into work while ill? Or should I just man up, stop fretting, get on with work as normal and hope for the best? It's rather surprising to actually find myself in the position of dreading swine flu after months of basically dismissing it, but this pre-vaccine period seems to present a window of opportunity that gives me the fear. If I didn't have asthma, I wouldn't be fussed, but as it is... well, it's all a bit unsettling.
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