Sick for a month

I have a new cold.  Really.

For those keeping score:

• I became ill with a cold the Tuesday after Thanksgiving (illness number one).
• The cold was accompanied in the latter stages by a bacterial infection in my throat (illness number two).
• I took 10 days of an antibiotic (to which it responded well), only to have the infection recur about three days later (throat pain, no cold symptoms).  Denied to myself that that’s what had happened for a couple of days, and then got another 10 days of the antibiotic (illness number three).
• Again the infection responded, and I was completely asymptomatic on day four (so hopefully I’m finally to the point of simply taking the rest of the antibiotic and moving on).  Ha!
• Woke up with a different cold for Christmas morning (the tickle in the throat, the drip, the sneeze:  the classic onset).  That sumbitch is raging today.  The nasal congestion is back with extreme prejudice.  The bastards held me down sometime during the night and emptied one of those big bottles of Elmer’s Glue into my nose (illness number four).

I’m not even counting the GI turmoil from the antibiotic, or that would be number five.  And none of these are/have been “the sniffles,” i.e. some transient and short-lived reaction to an allergen or somesuch.  This has been two distinct viral infections and two distinct bacterial infections (assuming a brief period of being asymptomatic between them counts).

I’d be concerned being sick for so long, except that everything I’ve had has been easy to diagnose and understand.  It’s not SARS or the “supercold”; it’s just rotten luck.  And it’s not like I’m going around licking doorknobs.  I’m a consistent and diligent hand washer, am careful about sharing food and drink, and the like.

I am thankful that my family hasn’t been hit harder.  In the same timeframe, Lea’s had at least one cold and one bacterial infection (which may have been unrelated to mine; hers was more in her sinuses), but the boys have largely escaped.  I expect they’ve already had these specific colds, because they certainly would have gotten sick otherwise.

So I finish the second round of the antibiotic this weekend.  Should I just go ahead and write in round three of the infection for my New Year’s Day bowl game party?  Sheezus fuck, I’m tired of this.

I know this is only a marginally interesting topic at best.  Unless I do turn out to have something exotic and/or serious, I won’t post about it again.  But if you’re feeling pretty good, please do count your blessings.  It certainly does feel like a ripoff to be sick during Christmas vacation.

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