Kevin Laliberte
Editor, Smoky River Express

There’s very few certainties in life with, of course, the exception of death and taxes. Oh, and how could I possibly leave out the obvious runner-up for third, the dreaded return of the cold and influenza season. Yeah, it’s that time of the year once again for runny noses, nagging coughs, aches, pains, fever and congestion – symptoms which hit me full force this past week, making me feel like I had one foot in the grave. First of all let me state for the record that the cold/flu season is something I traditionally don’t dedicate a great deal of ink to in my weekly columns in recent years. This isn’t because I’m considered to be one of the leading candidates as the poster boy for “good health” in the medical field. It’s simply due to the fact that, up until recently, things have been rather uneventful on the viral infection frontlines of our humble abode, the Laliberte residence. Ah, but I should have known my good luck in terms of successfully ducking and dodging the ‘bug’ bullet couldn’t possibly last forever. It had to rear its sneezing, sniffling head eventually, especially given the fact that two of our three kids just don’t seem to comprehend the meaning “wash your hands” on a regular basis. Needless to say, we were all eventually bitten by the bug, falling ill one by one with varying symptoms. It began with our youngest son whom Jacqui and I have accordingly nicknamed the “Grim Germ Reaper.” If there’s a bug out there, nine times out of 10 he’s the first one to introduce it into the house. In the most recent case, he brought in the flu, which I might add is never pretty given it stomach-churning intensity. I’ll spare you the gory details by offering special praise to our latrine, laundry appliances and that ice cream bucket for bearing the brunt of this mini outbreak, which moved on to hit our oldest son next, not once but twice in a span of less than two weeks. He was the only one in the entire family to turn his nose up to a flu shot at the hospital in McLennan last week – an opportunity which the rest of us gratefully accepted after watching him worship the toilet gods from his knees. Mercifully, the remaining three family members, including yours truly, were spared the gut-wrenching pain of being stricken by the flu. That’s not to suggest, however, that we were out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination. As the old saying goes, what comes around goes around. Sure enough, within a couple of short weeks, we repeated the entire process all over again. The only difference was that on this occasion it proved to be a nasty cold bug which left me in a lethargic zombie-like state for four painful days. Oh, I did my best to get the upper hand on the bug by throwing everything at it with the exception of the the kitchen sink. I guzzled cough syrup and Neo Citrin like it was soda pop for the hacking and congestion. I popped Motrin Extra Strength like Tic-Tac’s for the aches and pains. And when that failed to put the brakes on the bug I hit grandpa’s special elixir in the form of double hot toddies for the hell of it. What can I say, we were out of chicken soup. Thankfully, things are finally returning to a more familiar sense of normalcy following the departure of this most recent bout of the cold. Ah, and to think there’s only six months remaining on the calendar for the cold and flu season. Bah humbug! I’m starting to feel another strong urge for an extended winter getaway vacation in Mexico! 2. Wash your hands every time you cough or sneeze, visit a sick friend or family member, use the bathroom, handle money or when you touch a public place or areas where germs collect. 3. Sanitize when soap and water are not available. An alcohol-based instant hand sanitary agent, like Purell, kills 99.99 per cent of the germs and bacteria on your hands that can make you sick, like the cold/flu virus. And for those of you who still maintain the age-old belief that you can catch a cold by going outdoors on a cool day without a coat on, well, you can lay that myth to rest. You may get cold relatively fast without adequate clothing to insulate your body, but the chances of picking up the cold or flu virus is a long shot at best.

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