Influenza nearly killed me: Get immunized!

Jessica Kinar-Abbott doesn’t mince words:  “Get your flu shot and listen to the experts. The flu can kill you. It nearly killed me.”

Jessica, active and healthy at age 38, was hospitalized twice in the same year for influenza. The first time she initially thought it was a bad cold. It didn’t take long before she was struggling to breathe and coughing up large amounts of phlegm. She was admitted to hospital, placed on oxygen and used a nebulizer, a device that turns liquid medicine into a mist that is inhaled through a mouthpiece or mask. The confirmed diagnosis was influenza.

A few months later, while still very weak and further recovering at home, she got influenza again. She was once again admitted to hospital, feeling even sicker than before. This time, influenza lead to viral pneumonia.

“I knew it wasn’t good,” she states. “It felt like I was breathing through a straw and that someone was sitting on my chest. I couldn’t get enough air. It was terrifying not being able to breathe.” Four years later, she suffers from permanent scarring in her lungs and has a rattling sound in her chest as she struggles to breathe. She regularly uses a puffer and carries it with her wherever she goes in case she urgently needs the medication. The dry Saskatchewan climate - especially hot summer days and smoke from forest fires - makes it difficult for Jessica to breathe. Cold winter days hit her lungs hard. A humidifier runs continually in her home and workplace, and travel means taking a small portable humidifier with her.

“I still can’t believe how much influenza has changed my life. I didn’t have any breathing condition that would have made the flu hit me so hard, but it sure left me with one,” Jessica states.

Now Jessica urges everyone to listen to the medical experts and get an annual flu shot.

“You would go to a doctor if you broke your leg or have your appendix out. Why do we trust them for certain things and not others? They are the experts and we should listen to them. They know what they’re doing,” she insists.

Jessica, her family and many of her friends now get the flu shot each year. She says, “If you don’t want to do it for yourself, don’t you have someone you care about that you want to protect? Your kids? Your parents? Your grandparents? Your friends? If you don’t want to get immunized for someone else, do it for me!”

For more information about influenza and where and when to get your flu shot, go to 4flu.ca.