I will say that life indeed has a lot of bumps in the road. Imagine your driving out on the open road, and you hit a pothole. Your once seemingly pleasant drive is now eventful. Well, I hit a nice pothole two and a half weeks before my birthday. Somewhere after all Hollow’s eve, I caught something airborne: the flu.

Imagine my anger when I woke up November 1st and felt horrible. My throat was on fire, I could’ve been on one of those circus acts that spews fire. I kept repeating to myself: “Why? Everytime my birthday comes, I always get sick?” When you’re a Thanksgiving baby, you dread your birthday because nine times of ten, I will not be well to celebrate it. My birthday ten years ago was spent in the bathroom for two weeks because of stomach bug. I lost about 15 pounds.

Every September, I armor up and get a flu shot and wash my hands like crazy. I also keep my immune system in tip-top shape with Vitamin C, but sometimes, you just get sick. I guess this is payback for not getting the flu last year because I was one of the lucky ones that didn’t get sick at all. Many co-workers fell ill and I escaped unscathed. Not this year! The last few days, I’ve been sick as a dog and trying to get this flu bug out of me.

I can’t even edit or make changes for my book because I have no energy. I can’t sleep when I’m congested, and both nasal passages decide to alternate when it comes to being plugging up. One night, my right will be blocked and the next it will be my left side. The other night, I breathed through my mouth. Every time, I’m sick it makes the old depression worse.

All my brain is focused on is being negative. It always goes to the worst case scenario. My sleep has been terrible. My insomnia is worse, and people are noticing that my mood is awful. The other day at work, someone asked, “Are you OK?” “Of course I am, I have the flu, and I’m stuck working because no other manager can take my shift. Other than that, I feel fantastic.”

I look for the day when I can not hit another road bump in my life. Since Harvey, I hit too many potholes and look forward to a stress-free and PTSD-free period in my life.