My Experience with Swine Flu

Swine Flu~
On the 17th of September, Thursday, I was confirmed with Swine Flu, or H1N1 flu. Back in May, I would have believed it to be improbable feat, to be able to ever catch this virus, but thinking back on it now, to the week just before I caught swine flu, it seemed to be almost unavoidable to NOT have caught it. The swine flu had already reached my school by the time summer break was over, we all knew. One of my classmates had the flu, and had been out for almost 2 weeks recovering. That was just one student, but, on that week, when we went to school on Monday, 6 students were absent. Our teachers were starting to take extra precautions to ensure that it didn’t spread, and keeping track of the absent students who had the flu. With all the worry going on, class didn’t turn out as effective… By Tuesday, 10 students in my class alone were gone; the highest number in the school. So during our first class, our teacher, seeing as so many students were missing, decided it would be pointless to try to teach the lesson. By the end of 1st period, the school had decided to cancel school for our class for the rest of the week, until Saturday. Everyone left in the class celebrated, of course. The next day, though, I was already feeling not so well. By night time, I had a slight fever. On Thursday, my mother was left with no choice but to take me to the hospital, where after a series of tests (including having to stick a q-tip up my nose, which was quite painful, and impossible…), the doctor confirmed the swine flu, as we expected. From then on, I was confined to my room for the rest of the week, away from the rest of the society while I recovered from my symptoms. And that’s how I spent my Silver Week [holidays] in Japan.