A week after my college ski mountaineering buddies left, I was sick as a dog. I took infinite grief from the two physicians in the group who could not believe I had not gotten a flu shot. Indeed, they counseled that it made sense to still get the shot ... I was incredulous. A week without training, a week feeling like I was going to die, and the only thing that was as miserable as last week, was the week after my prostate cancer surgery a decade ago.