Sniffles.  Itchy, watery eyes. Sneezing. Ugh! Woke this morning with all the  symptoms typical of catching a cold. The doctor warned me back in  December I needed to protect myself from some type of infection or  getting a cold. He even prescribed an anti-biotic to take for 10 days to  prevent getting some form of bacterial infection. But a cold is not  bacterial, but viral in nature.

Question is what effect and how devastating will it be if I am indeed now coming down with a cold?

I  am set to see the doctor again next Tuesday. But what if I end up in  bed, as I have done in the past, from a common cold? Could this be the  beginning not of a cold, but of the flu?

Yesterday,  21 people had died across the Cornfield's home state of Indiana from  the flu. That number has risen in 24 hours to 27 people. With my new  reality of one lung, how dangerous could a cold or the flu be for me?

When  I was either six or nine months old back in 1955, I was hospitalized  with a temperature of 106 degrees and edged a little higher. The doctors  packed me in ice. I was convulsive. The diagnosis given at the time was  double pneumonia. That same year thousands of babies died from a flu  outbreak that was often diagnosed as pneumonia. Looking back it now  seems that I actually was one of the flu victims.

While  in the hospital last year, I was given a pneumonia vaccine that was to  be good for up to 5 years. Technically, my non-specific bacterial  infection of my right lobe that rendered it useless is called pneumonia.  The vaccine, however, was against what we more commonly refer to as  pneumonia, the viral variety.

I  will admit it is a little scary today having the symptoms of what could  be either a cold setting in or the beginning of the flu. With the death  toll continuing to surge from the flu, I am apprehensive of what this  may mean for me in my more "weakened" state of being.

Perhaps  I should pause and check my temperature. That may give me an idea of  what is going on with my body.  Well, I am sitting here now with the  thermometer in my mouth. We will know in a minute or so if I also have a  fever. Ugh!

I  am back. My normal temperature runs around 96.3. The reading is 97.2.  So I do have a lowgrade fever. I'll have to monitor it through the day.  Guess its time to take some cold medicine and hope for the best.