Remember to Get Your Flu Shot!

A big thank you to TIVFD for arranging the flu clinic again this year. With the COVID19 on most people's minds right now, I would like to tell you how important it is to get your flu shot this fall (Tuesday Oct 27th). I apologise to those who may be tired of hearing about my near death experience with H1N1 in 2009 but for those that don't remember or for those new on the island I am going to tell you how important it is to get your flu shot. 

It was near the end of October 2009 that I thought I just had either the flu or food poisoning and just tried to ignore it. The day I decided to seek medical help was the morning I was lying on the bedroom floor with most of my body functions spent. I decided to check my temperature, which I rarely ever do. My temperature read 104F so we went to the emergency in Chemainus.  That is all I remember until I woke up in December 2009. I have always been fairly healthy and was the last person who thought I would get that sick my organs were starting to shut down as pneumonia went septic. They put me into a drug-induced coma to give my body a chance to recover which in the end took 7 weeks. I was in 4 different hospitals ending up at the Royal Jubilee in Victoria since they had the only Kidney Dialysis Machine. I was told that if I had not been healthy at the time I would be dead.

My health has never been the same but I am alive and glad I had not only a great team of doctors and nurses, but a community that was there for us. 

Getting the flu can be more than a few days under the weather but add the COVID 19 and you may not return home. Scary? Yes, but let me tell you so is death. Please for not only your health but for those on this island that are immune compromised get your flu shot!!! 

Gloria Taylor