What kind of flu did I have back in March?

With all of the intense press coverage of the so-called swine flu "pandemic", I had actually forgotten that I in fact had some flu-like symptoms back in March. It was not a big deal at the time and I quickly recovered and promptly forgot about it. I likely "caught" the bug on the bus from NYC to Atlantic City or the local bus from Atlantic City to Waretown, NJ.

Prior to that, the last time I had a cold was back in June 2008, shortly after I moved to NYC from Bellevue, WA. I attributed that to getting used to all of the crap in the air here in NYC after living in the clean air of the Pacific Norwthwest for two years.

My "cold" in March was odd in that it was a "mini-cold", lasting about half as long and only half as intense as my typical cold such as that which I had back in June. Maybe 5 days total instead of 10 days total. I had never experienced a short cold like that before.

I had a mild sore throat in the afternoon the day after my bus trip, some mild body ache in the evening, modest congestion for several days, but not intense enough to cause any coughing. I did take a lot of aspirin, but no other "cold remedies." That's it. Nothing memorable if not in the context of the current "pandemic."

I made several trips in the latter half of March and early April, so I do not recall exactly for sure which one it was, but it was likely the trip on Tuesday, March 17th. I do recall that I was completely healthy again for a trip from NYC to Denver, Colorado on Thursday, March 26, 2009.

I do in fact wonder what "strain" of flu I encountered. Alas, it is long gone, but it would be interesting to hear if many others had any similar experience in that timeframe.

-- Jack Krupansky