On Selective Germs:

I am sick yet again. An ear infection this time. But as these things do happen I am now fairly sure where I acquired the little buggers. At my cancer meeting. I don’t get to my cancer meetings as often as I’d like to, but every time I do I am sick within days.

The cancer meeting is held in a large waiting room in one of the local hospital annex buildings. Whether the cut backs have caused the cleaning staff to clean less or the germs are getting more resistant, I do not know. Is it the emotion I feel there making me more susceptible to the germs? Or is all this some cosmic joke on me? All I know is that I come home sick each time I’ve gone there for the last year or more.

I love my cancer group. We are a hodge-podge of people who understand and care for each other. And I am at a loss as to what to do. I want to see them and be with them. But getting sick on a regular bases is not something I want to put my body or expenses through twice monthly.

I shop and go to other meetings with no problem. One of these meetings is in a room just vacated by a cub scout troupe in a public library. Boy child germs all over the place and I come home fine.

I shop for food, go to doctor’s and dentist’s offices, get tests done in the hospital itself, I go to banks and eateries and I can spend hours weekly in craft stores fingering merchandise and don’t come home sick.

I wish I knew the answer to this one. I don’t want to avoid this wonderful group of people just because I come home sick after I’ve been there. But the evidence is not looking in their favor. When I don’t go there for months I’m fine, when I do go I get sick. I only worry about it at all because I can’t get a flu shot, I’m allergic to eggs.

So, do I go to the meetings or stay home for the entire flu season? Maybe I’ll wait until I’m well again to make this decision. But I’m in agony over it until I do.