1918 Spanish flu pandemic
When the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic reached Toronto, Earhart was engaged in arduous nursing duties including night shifts at the Spadina Military Hospital.[32][33] She became a patient herself, suffering from pneumonia and maxillary sinusitis.[32] She was hospitalized in early November 1918 owing to pneumonia and discharged in December 1918, about two months after the illness had started.[32] Her sinus-related symptoms were pain and pressure around one eye and copious mucus drainage via the nostrils and throat.[34] In the hospital, in the pre-antibiotic era, she had painful minor operations to wash out the affected maxillary sinus,[32][33][34] but these procedures were not successful and Earhart subsequently suffered from worsening headache attacks. Her convalescence lasted nearly a year, which she spent at her sister's home in Northampton, Massachusetts.[33] She passed the time by reading poetry, learning to play the banjo and studying mechanics.[32] Chronic sinusitis was to significantly affect Earhart's flying and activities in later life,[34] and sometimes even on the airfield she was forced to wear a bandage on her cheek to cover a small drainage tube