Feeling under the weather

Photo by Polina Tankilevitch (Pexels)

Twas one cold winter night, when all through the town every creature was stirring, even on a microscopic level. The virus wandered the streets with excitement, in hopes of meeting a lovely host. 

The humans were bustling all around their towns in their winter coats, while the virus was slowly giving up hope. And after passing one innocent human, the virus cheered with joy. It finally found a loving host and snugly the virus settled into its new home.

That is my shoddy imitation of the classic “A Visit from St. Nicholas” by the author Clement Clarke Moore, who is also funnily a real estate developer (the things you learn when your research your topic.).

Nevertheless, today I did not want to discuss the wonderful poem nor did I want to defend my nonexistent poetry skills. Today I am, as the title mentions, feeling under the weather and I want to examine how it came about.

A little history. I am the kind of person who rarely gets sick. Ever since the seventh grade, I never missed one day of school. Now that uni does not have a presence requirement, I cannot claim that I have never missed a day (at least I try to not miss a day). 

Anyhow, I rarely get sick and if I do eventually fall ill, I never stay in bed all day since even though I am under the weather a bit, I am still capable of going about my day as usual. There is no point in wasting a day just because a microscopic virus got to me.

Now thinking about it, I only get sick once a year. Don´t get me wrong, I have other health issues that need medical attention because I can be a clutz sometimes but that is completely besides the point. The point is, I rarely fall victim to aliment and I am really thankful for my immune system.

With that said, I was quite surprised that I fell ill suddenly. It is the common cold so there was nothing to worry about but I was nonetheless surprised. However, now looking back my surprise was irrational since I could have seen the cold coming.

When I came home one day, both my mother and brother caught a cold and were coughing & wheezing hysterically. I think from my future perspective I should have asked why I didn´t catch a cold sooner than I did.

Generally, I wouldn´t say that I am a superstitious person but I believe I somewhat jinxed it too. Because a day before I caught a cold, I was on a call to my friend saying that I probably can´t catch a cold which was going around because aforementioned my immune system is not too shabby.

Funnily enough, my friend also caught a cold so the options of how I caught a cold are either my family (with whom I spent a week while they were ill), I somehow jinxed it or the virus can now be transmitted through radio frequency. It is anyone´s guess at this point.

The most probable explanation is that I spent a week with my mother before the cold symptoms officially started showing (but I probably also worsen my chances of not catching a cold by jinxing it). And I was on vacation, my immune system generally gives out at that point.

As soon as the first common cold symptoms showed and the virus settled in, I felt all the symptoms crash down upon me at once like a wave while the virus is making itself comfortable in my upper respiratory tract.

With a common cold, the most prevalent symptom that I possess is always runny and at the same time stuffy nose. From a health standpoint, I would say my nose is always the most unsound. When something is wrong, it was always the nose.

Besides the runny/stuffy nose, I also had a sore throat. To be honest, it felt as if the whole passage from my nose to my throat was a dry desert and every time I swallowed hurt in a more annoying than painful way.

Due to the uncommitted state of the nose, I am also feeling bloody light-headed because in a way you are getting oxygen but barely enough to survive. I mean at least I did not get a headache nor did the rest of my body ache but I still had a queasy feeling.

Funnily enough, the cough was also somewhat wishy-washy. Sometimes, the cough was dry as if you could cough up part of your epiglottis (a thin flap of tissue that prevents food from entering your windpipe).

Some other times, the cough will be congested. With mucus blocking the airway, you could feel as if you can´t breathe anymore. As you cough, the mucus would just stay there snugly until you decide to stop… take a breath… and continue coughing. 

Sometimes the mucus won´t leave so I just keep coughing violently for minutes… without getting much air… in the middle of the bloody night. It is just so much fun to get a coughing fit in the middle of the night… multiple times.

Then comes the most germ-spreading symptom, sneezing. Suddenly, out of the blue, a sneeze just comes shooting through your tiny already blocked nose with runny goo. Some saliva droplets come sprinkling out of the mouth and are sometimes followed by snot goo.

The sneeze is from a societal standpoint the worst. As the sneezer, the sneeze comes as a surprise so you sometimes don't have enough time to cover your mouth and all the virus-infected droplets come spraying out.

Some other times, you manage to cover your mouth just in time but the people around you don´t approve of your sneeze-covering method. Some prefer the elbow but some use their hand which makes everything somehow worse.

As the audience to the sneeze, you get to judge the sneeze-covering method and you also have the honour to bless the sneezer. But let´s be real for a moment, sneeze-witnessing is not the best since (even non-infectious) I don´t want to get the sneezer´s body liquids anywhere near or, worse, on me.

Luckily, I didn´t get much of a fever but as you probably know by now, I am not feeling all too well. I felt exhausted all day because in the evenings I could not fall asleep due to the stuffy nose and I could not stay asleep because of the coughing intervals scattered through the night.

If nature didn´t already hate me for all the science by-products I have produced (I know there is more which nature could hate me for but I don´t have time to list all the reasons I am not the most eco-friendly), it will hate me for all the tissue paper I used to blow my ever stuffy nose.

If my parents didn´t already find me annoying enough with all the topics I could be invested in and talk their ears off about, they probably are annoyed by the fact that they can´t have a peaceful night of sleep.

If I didn´t already find the simple fact that I am a mere human with emotions frustrating enough, I have yet another reminder that I am just a human with the constant coughing and sneezing sprinkled throughout my day in minute intervals.

Case in point, I am ill and I am deeply frustrated by it. Which is why I am going to get plenty of rest now as suggested. For the time being, I will drink plenty of warm fluids, take throat soothers, use nasal sprays and hope for a speedy recovery. Until next time…