Yesterday evening, after I’d worked in the parking lot, after I cleaned my campground’s last toilet and poured a bucket of water on a fire campers had left smoldering, after I cooked and ate dinner and cleaned up after, I thought I might be getting sick. As I sat on the floor of my van and did my accounting of the money I’d collected in the parking lot, I felt really cold.
Of course, the temperature was pleasantly cool all day, after a thunderstorm (and what thunderous thunder it was) the night before. I wore my official company-issued jacket most of the day. But as the afternoon depended into evening, I got colder than I thought I should be.
After I finished my accounting, I took off my uniform and put on my new grey Cuddl Duds leggings (purchased new and on sale for only $3 on end-of-season clearance because to most of California it’s summer now) and my blue sweatshirt (purchased ages ago for $1 at a New Mexico thrift store). I realized not only was I cold, but I was congested too. Oh no! Was I getting sick? I don’t want none of that!
I emptied a packet of Emergen-C (bought for half price because the box was crushed) into my water bottle and chugged it down. I closed my curtain before it was even dark out and crawled into bed under my feather comforter (bought at a Goodwill Clearance Center for $6, using a birthday gift card, since I seem to be giving an accounting of bargains). I finished reading Lit by Mary Karr and turned out the light.
A woman I met at the 2016 Rubber Tramp Rendezvous told me she clears her body of all the nasty stuff chem trails leave behind just by thinking about it, telling her body to get rid of it all. I decided if it works (?) for chem trail chemicals, it should work for the common cold. So I told my body to flush out any invaders. Out, damned germ! Out, I say! I also gave my white blood cells a pep talk. Come on white blood cells/you can do it/put a little power to it!
I was probably asleep by 9:30.
When I woke up to pee for the nth time (because of all that water before bed), I was warm enough to take off my clothes before I got back in bed. Maybe a fever broke?
I slept well (and I think I had dreams, but I don’t remember a single detail). I woke to birdsong before daylight, but tried to sleep more until a raven (or maybe a pileated woodpecker or a pterodactyl) shouted Crawk! as it passed directly over the van. Ok! I’m awake! I’m writing!
Now it’s almost 6:15, and I don’t really want to get out of bed. (It’s my day off, so technically, I don’t have to.) I don’t quite have a headache, but more forehead feels tight, my eyelids are heavy, and I have an awareness of my lower back I don’t usually have.
I have much to do today, but mostly, I don’t want to be sick. Maybe I can still sleep it off.
I wrote this piece on June 13. After driving halfway down the mountain to get my mail, I spent the rest of the day sitting quietly in the van creating collages. I felt better the next day and thought I’d fought off the cold. I was good during my workweek (Wednesday through Sunday) until I woke up on Sunday with a sore throat. Now it’s Tuesday again, and I am full blown sick. My throat’s not sore anymore, which is good news, but my head is totally snotty and the cough is settling in. Maybe I should have cheered on my white blood cells a little more.
When I was working for a veterinarian, he told me something interesting, and it seems to be true. He said if you’ve got a real COLD (like caught from someone else), you should be running a fever. If not, it’s an ALLERGY ATTACK.
He said that an allergy attack will sometimes turn into a sinus infection, but people call a cold, which it isn’t; you feel horrible, but you still aren’t running a fever. The sinus infection gives you a headache, stuffy head, runny nose and sometimes a cough. Once it gets a good start (because you ignored it), there really isn’t much you can do except ride it out.
He said as soon as you THINK you feel something coming on, take some antihistamine (I use generic Sudafed, which is Pseudoephedrine*), and if you have a headache, too, also take something for that, like Ibuprofen. Don’t wait. Stop what you’re doing and take care of it. And that usually does it for me. If you wait, it can turn into a sinus infection, and there’s nothing you can do except treat the symptoms.
I have only had one “cold” in the last 7 years.
*Pseudoephedrine is now controlled because of the meth maggots, which I’m sure you’ve heard. You can get it without a prescription at Walmart for about $5, but you have to go to the pharmacy and they take down your name and keep track to see if you’re buying a lot of it because you’re making meth. I ask for the largest amount of the smallest dose that I can get. I tried the 24-hr stuff and it didn’t agree with me very well. You can get one package a month w/o anyone fussing, so I build up a little supply so I have it on hand for quick use.
My (probably unwanted) advice. First, I met an elderly man at the eye doctor once who told me that the last time he was sick he was 22 yes old. How? He said the minute he gets sick, he goes home, puts on sweT pants and a tshirt and a sweatshirt, gets his thermometer out and puts his electric blanket on his bed over one blanket and under two. He forces his body temp to reach 102 and turns off the blanket. He believes that one needs to sweat it out & kill it with fever. I’ve tried it twice and it worked.
Also, my doctor told me, yrs ago, to take 3000mg of Vit C and one tablet of Zinc. This has been the easier of the two methods and I have used it repeatedly. It has never failed me!
BTW, I really like your writing style. You keep it interesting and moving along. Nice traveling with you!
Thanks for your kind words about my writing, Ford. I am glad you enjoy reading my work.
The sweat-it-out technique is very interesting. However, since I have no electricity or electric blanket or thermometer, it won’t really work for me. I’m glad it works for you and the elderly man, though.
My sister had the same sort of symptoms and it turned into bronchitis which she is JUST getting over three weeks later. If it’s not gone in a week, you need to check in with a doctor or clinic for an antibiotic. She often lets things go too long and then is unnecessarily incapacitated for longer than she would have been if she had taken care of it promptly. She thinks this makes her a strong person. I think it makes her sicker. Take care of yourself and keep writing. You’re good at it!!
I’m no longer sick, just a lingering cough when I laugh or talk too much. That’s probably just the Universe telling me to shut up! Seriously, this is usually how colds go for me: initial symptoms gone, lingering cough. It was just a cold.
And thanks for the kind words about my writing. I appreciate it.
I like that chart, and I hope you are feeling better.
I am feeling better, thank you. Even the cough is mostly gone, except for sometimes when my co-worker makes me laugh really hard.