Diagnosis

 - the lady bug I met today.

        Fall of 2009, I caught the flu. Fever started running high, and I couldn’t get out of bed. The air above my body was a painful swirl. Everywhere, hurts.
        Cold medicine didn’t help. I went to the hospital; they prescribed me fever reducers. I could barely walk. The medicine didn’t make much difference. My temperature kept on soaring, night after day.  I wanted to cry; I didn’t know why.

        I couldn’t understand why. “What kind of flu is this,” I kept asking, “why wouldn’t it stop hurting, like usual flu?”

        It turned out to be H1N1, but misdiagnosed at first.


        When the whole room sits heavily on your chest.
        It can’t possibly get worse, you think.
        It can’t possibly last forever, you think.

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