Anatomy of the Common Cold

I began getting sick last week. At first, I coughed a lot and my nose sort of, kind of, maybe needed a Kleenex® every 15 minutes. But it wasn't too bad. I just had to keep blowing my nose for no real good reason, other than to make my nose sore. And because I thought I should.

I coughed. I sneezed. It wasn't too bad. Until it got worse.

On Sunday, we went to see the kids as we usually do. I had a month of essays to edit and so I took them in the car. I read them out loud which is entertaining for the driver – or so he claims. And I edit as I read and so it is productive for me. I got a little more than half way through the month on the way down.

We stayed for a few hours, ate lunch, played games, went for a walk, and then had to come back home. I continued reading the essays out loud. But my voice had changed. It went from its normal pitch to quite raspy. And from quite raspy to even worse, more like frog croaking. But I finished off the month as the sun began to set and was quiet the rest of the way home.

By Monday, my voice was almost entirely gone. I hadn't hardly slept at all because I would cough and sneeze and forget to breathe. Even with a bit of effort, breathing was less satisfying than it should be. I woke at 3 AM and never did get back to sleep. I tried drinking lemon tea. I gave up and went to coffee and went on with my day. My voice was barely audible even if I was shouting. And what managed to come out was only partial words. Amazingly, my throat didn't hurt. I just couldn't talk.

On Tuesday, my voice was a little better, although still on the scary side. I still wasn't sleeping. I was now running through Kleenex® at an amazing rate. I looked horrible, my voice was croaking, and other than being really tired and with burning eyes, I didn't feel bad.

LC had surgery on her left knee on Friday. She had four stitches put in and is now wearing a lampshade on her head to keep her away from the surgical site. At least that was the theory. Because she is so long, she managed to get to her knee on Tuesday evening. She ripped out one stitch before we caught her. We then had to get through the night before I could get her to the vet's again. We tried wrapping her leg, but that didn't work before and it still didn't work now even with better supplies. We needed to make the lampshade bigger so she couldn't get to her leg. The stupid dog was outsmarting the two humans. This was humiliating.

We tried a couple things without any success. Once she figured out how to get to her knee, she was good to go back at it repeatedly. Looking through supplies in the house, I came upon large binder clips. We placed the clips all around the end of the lampshade, making it quite large and unwieldy and hampering her ability to chew her leg off. It made a comical picture and if she wasn't already so miserable, I would have taken a picture. But she hates the camera and didn't need one more thing to go wrong.

I went to bed early with a dog right there with a noisy lampshade on her head. She did wake me up twice during the night as she stirred in her bed. The clips dragging on the floor were enough to wake me up. But I went right back to sleep. I woke up Wednesday actually rested.

But my voice was still bad. Not as bad as it had been. I also had some of my appetite back and could actually eat a whole meal. My eyes had stopped burning after a night's sleep. I was still going through Kleenex® by the box, but I was getting better. I also took LC to the vet and we got a larger lampshade for her. The remaining stitches are intact.

Today, Thursday, I woke up with my voice almost back to normal. But I'm trying to cough my head off. And sneezing. My God, I can't stop sneezing. Each day is slightly different. One thing is better and another thing is worse. I finally decided to call in sick for tomorrow's volunteer stint. I wouldn’t want me coughing all over a fresh post-op patient, so I will assume no one else does, either.

Now that I've done that, I will probably wake up tomorrow completely cured. At least I can hope that happens.