A Phoenix-area woman is in critical condition after what she thought was a side effect of the flu turned out to be a rare flesh-eating disease. 

Christin Lipinski, a mom of three and school teacher, was diagnosed with influenza earlier this month. Days later, she was in severe pain at the hospital. 

Lipinski did have the flu. She also had necrotizing fasciitis, a flesh-eating infection.

Full story here.

First of all, best wishes for a quick and safe recovery to Christin Lupinski. This seems very unfair. Flesh eating bacteria was scary enough before it was being confused for the common flu. There are things doctors can miss when you go in. This is not one of them. You can’t miss flesh-eating bacteria. Flesh-eating bacteria is on the “must-catch” list. People who go to the doctor shouldn't be allowed to get flesh-eating bacteria, on the other hand, I very much deserve flesh-eating bacteria.

I've refused to go to the doctor for a while: call it laziness, call it not having health insurance, or call it fear that I have flesh-eating bacteria, call it whatever. I don’t go to the doctor and I know what danger that puts me in. I’m physically and philosophically asking for it. I deserve none of the peace of mind that should come with making regular visits to a primary physician. I already had a little sampling of staphylococcus (I didn't google the spelling four times to not include it in the blog), and that was basically just my body testing the waters to see if something gross could grow inside of me.

This is nightmare material, and congratulations doctors, you just sent a million people with flu-like symptoms to Web MD. Hey folks, it’s 2018: you can think you just have a stuffy nose when actually your skin is eating itself! Modern medicine has failed us. You know what's never failed us? Freaking out and self-diagnosing based off of an internet encyclopedia of diseases.