Caught severe flu (29DEC10) followed by pneumonia even after receiving flu vaccine several months earlier?

Over the winter break, I fell ill with the worst flu I ever experienced. I am a male, 41 yrs, excellent physical health who loves to run/exercise. The symptoms really kicked in after a hike along the beach with my kids during a warming trend in the winter weather out at Plum Island, MA (Wednesday, 29DEC2010). I must have had the flu "bug" in me before because I had lower back pain that persisted, but no fever or thought of it being the flu. Often, I do get lower back pain from tight muscles, but it usually goes away when I exercise (running, long walks, elliptical, etc); not this time. When we drove back to the house that evening, my lower back pain became severe and the only comfort was from sitting next to the wood stove in our living room to warm up my back. I continuously felt cold and was "out of it" with my whole body starting to feel numb. The following days my back pain expanded throughout my whole body starting as numbness to pain and severe migraine headaches; I walked very slowly. Couldn't make it out for New Year's celebration and went to bed early at 7 PM with chills and a hot water bottle to keep me warm. The moment I stepped out of bed to go the bathroom, I would get chills and have to jump back in bed or run a hot bath to keep me warm. I don't believe I was feverish during these times, because I felt cold to my wife and my temperature did drop a degree or two (96-98) instead of rise when I had the chills. And the hot baths helped sooth my sore body and stem the chills. However, at times I must have been feverish, because I would wake up in the middle of the night with my clothes drenched in perspiration to where I would have to change and sleep on the couch. On Friday and Saturday (31DEC10 to 01JAN11) I ended up lying on floor with a thick warm blanket watching TV feeling more like a corpse with a severe migraine and moving very little due to sore muscles. I took some Advil which made a huge difference and felt the pressure release from my headache. That Sunday I felt better and on Monday I felt good enough to go to work. However, I started getting a cough and it worsened by Thursday night to where I wasn't getting any sleep. By Friday night (07JAN11), I coughed all night long and did not sleep; fits of coughing every 5-15 minutes. Again, I wasn't feeling feverish, although I felt hot after coughing. Thought I was catching a cold from the kids. However, the stuff I was coughing up started as curd-like pea soup green sputum on Friday to more of a custard-like yellow whitish color by Saturday evening. Again, couldn't stop coughing all night long Saturday, and decided to go the hospital Sunday morning because it felt more than just a cold. I would've gone earlier but I really wasn't having a high fever but this was deeper down in the chest and it hurt. As it turned out, the Dr diagnosed me with "left pneumonia" after looking at the chest X-ray and he told me the green sputum was good and the yellow sputum was bad because the bacteria was causing tissue damage. Dr stated the pneumonia was probably the result of getting the flu earlier and placed me on bed-rest and antibiotics for a week (no inhaler). The only comfort I get at night is by keeping my body/chest elevated with a bunch of pillows. Instead of coughing every 5 minutes, I go through coughing fits every 15-30 minutes (coughing is important to clear the lungs of mucous/sputum). I actually slept an hour last night without going through a coughing fit (11JAN11) and I do feel I am getting better. My wife sleeps on the couch in the living room because there is no way she would get any sleep if she were to stay with me. However, I am disappointed with getting a flu vaccination that obviously did not help me. I have never experienced flu like this an never expected to get pneumonia. I have always felt myself to be a healthy guy but this flu and subsequent pneumonia hit me pretty hard and does to be a normal strain. Perhaps this was a more virulent strain of the flu that I caught. I have my doubts that I am the only one in New England who is going through this and I hope the state Health Dept and/or CDC is tracking this flu. This was more of a statement of what I experienced. Perhaps CDC will take notice if this is more than just a random event.