My family has been in and out of the hospital more often than we should have been in the past few weeks if I had just gone in earlier.

 

Baby and Mama began to develop symptoms two days after I visited. At the hospital, the doctor felt the cases were linked. Talk about imperfect timing, my fever started the day after. 

 

When I found out I was the probable source of the strep bacteria they caught during my visit to the family house, Baby had just been diagnosed with acute otitis media and Mama with severe pneumonia. I was distraught. My diagnosis of community acquired pneumonia came with a striking finality of being sick and being responsible for my mother’s and child’s illness. 

 

I had totally dismissed my developing cough. How was I to know that there could have possibly been some other thing that was wrong? My Covid tests had come back negative twice in two weeks, I thought. I had not had it at all either and we had been in “isolation” at the office complex that housed us while we worked. It was easy to wave-off for me, being a young person, but their age and Mama’s diabetes made them even more vulnerable.

 

Looking back, I can only just blame myself. Maybe my office too, because when last did they clean those AC vents? I had been feeling relatively well but for the cough here and there.

 

I can go on and on looking for excuses, but in all truth I know I could have done better. The local pharmacy had even tried to make me purchase the pneumococcal vaccine in the past, and there I was thinking it was just another marketing gimmick for one of their overpriced products.

 

While I stay mourning the other choices I could have made to avert all this, including going to the hospital earlier or getting everyone vaccinated, I continue to ponder on the last words from the doctor; “Since you cannot change the past, it’s okay to do something now to protect the future”. 

 

For enquiries on how to get vaccinated against pneumonia at your comfort contact Inocul8 on 08160962414.