YOU have just woken up and your throat feels uncomfortably raw and your forehead, unusually warm.
You vaguely recall that you have work that requires your attention urgently. And then it strikes you that you may have to call in sick and see a doctor.
For men, decisions like this can be especially difficult to make, flu pandemic or not.
We grapple with concerns about being seen as irresponsible and slacking off for reporting sick, especially if we have work deadlines to meet.
More importantly, we have to deal with whether others will call us wimps, as well as a strange desire to be gung-ho about everything we do.
There was one time during Chinese New Year when I was suddenly struck by a bad bout of the cold.
While I saw the doctor, I thought I could still "tough it out" and dragged myself to school to complete some work I had planned to get done.
Needless to say, it did not go well.
Between weakness in the limbs and my head spinning, whatever work I did turned out wrong.
In short, I had wasted my time and made myself feel worse for it.
Yes, guys, it is the all-too-familiar male-ego thing.
The same ego that is claiming the lives of men because they are too proud to see a doctor, if a research report released this month is anything to go by.
The British study of over 150,000 cancer deaths in 2007 found that men are 40 per cent more likely to die from cancer than women.
The researchers said this could be explained by men's "stiff upper lip" and their tendency to be less health conscious than women.
This includes a propensity to not visit the doctor.
In today's context of the H1N1 flu pandemic, such an attitude is worrying, even dangerous.
Guys, we are only making matters worse by being consumed by pride and thinking that we would not get infected with the H1N1 virus when we get the sniffles.
For one thing, it is difficult to distinguish the H1N1 flu from the seasonal flu as the symptoms - like coughing and running a fever - are similar.
We have to think about the family, friends, colleagues and office supervisors who will thank us for not trying to tackle the flu on our own macho terms.
For another thing, it must surely be more embarrassing to find out that we have the H1N1 virus after attempts to tough it out with the flu fail and we end up having to see the doctor in any case.
But getting infected is not the end of the road because treatment is available.
However, treatment can kick in only if we do the socially responsible thing by seeking medical attention when we are unwell.
Resting will do you far more good than putting up a macho front by going to work or meeting friends and proudly proclaiming that you are "fine" .
If only I had been more sensible in the past, I would have saved myself a great amount of grief.
And a battering to my ego, when others later learnt about my folly.
