[quote user="sweet 17"] In 2000, when there was a flu epidemic, OH decided he'd catch the flu so that he wouldn't have to do the washing-up. So, after Christmas Day dinner, OH took to his bed; I had to take his cousin and her friend (they'd come for Christmas Dinner) back to their homes; then call the ambulance. The ambulance came and whipped OH off to the local district hospital; siren blaring, red light flashing and me following in the car. To cut a long story short, he was at death's door and yours truly got to spend the rest of Christmas Day and most of the New Year holidays in the hospital sitting by OH's bedside. In the end, I'd had enough of the histrionics and got him an early discharge and took him home and told him in no uncertain terms not to pull that stunt again! [/quote] Funnily enough, that same Xmas, I had flu. On Boxing Day, feeling absolutely ghastly at times, cooperlola insisted that we (i.e. I) drive to Kempton Park for the King George, for which we had bought members' badges. Next day was a friends party, and I got null points for arriving late and being a bit boring. On the Thursday, I found that the symptoms had lifted a bit, went supermarket shopping, found myself short of breath, but quite different from my usual - on such occasions - asthma. On Friday, flu gone, but breathing still not right, so went to Doc, who pronounced me to be suffering from "rather nasty case of pneumonia", sent me for x-ray. Radiographer very concerned when he looked at my right lung! Off work for a fortnight, but drugs did the trick. Man-flu has not been mentioned in our household since! Oh, and because I'm an asthmatic, France offers me a free flu jab every year.