The genesis of my cold

Well, its official. I am sick. I’m on day 4. I tried to prevent it with vitamin D and prayer. I even thought I had avoided it. I had always thought that incubation period before coming in contact with a virus and the time your symptoms appear were like 2-3 days. Well, I suppose that may be correct if you can actually nail down the day of the virus’s invasion into your system. Take my husband and son for example. When Owen got sick, he was  very good about covering his mouth when he coughed, not kissing me on the lips, etc. So the worst of his cold came and went and I didn’t catch it. But Kanan caught it (probably during their tickling fight they had on the couch when Owen was still sick) and then I may not have actually caught it from him until two or three days after he caught it because it took that long before he coughed in my face while sleeping in my bed. (that’s what I get for letting the little guy crawl in at 5 am with his blankey, his bunny, his monkey, and his doggy.)

 

So my chart tracks the genesis. I blame it all on my cousin Dalton. Thanks coz! 😉

 

So why am I writing this blog about a cold? Because this is no ordinary cold. This cold is a malicious little virus that likes to fester in your respiratory system, affecting every aspect of it. It likes to linger. And it likes to torture!

 

First–you start off with a terrible sore throat. Your throat feels likes its been burned with fire and cut with razors. Swallowing, speaking, just existing….is pure pain. Then the cough  on day three comes and the fatigue and the head ache. Every time you cough, your throat flashes out a solar flare of fire and the pressure in your head erupts so high you feel like your head will explode. Then the chest pressure on day 4. You feel like someone is standing on your chest. You resort to shallow breathing just to minimize the pain—so then you feel dizzy and weak from the lack of oxygen in your system. The trip to the store to get another bottle of Tylenol or Robotussin puts you so out of breath, you collapse on the couch on your return. Next—the voice box. This virus takes sandpaper and shreds it up to pulp and then soaks his claws in slime and rubs it all over the remains of your voice box afterward. So the sound that comes from your throat when you speak on day 5 is this croaking, phlegmy sputter. That is what I can expect tomorrow. I’m on day 4 right now. But from all the other people who had it before me, this was their pattern. Unless I take the path Kanan took. Now–the virus didn’t attack Kanan on day 5 the same way. No with Kanan, he filled his sinuses up with so much phlegm and snot, the pressure left no other option but for it to find relief through erupting out of his tear ducts. I had to wipe away yellow mucus from the kid’s eyes like every 10 minutes over the course of 24 hours. I thought it was pink eye, but they never glued shut. And pink eye is severely contagious. I didn’t catch it. So, my diagnosis is–pressure from sinuses. Other slight variations include–pneumonia, as in the case of my Grandma who caught it. And hallucinations, as in the case of Dalton, my cousin who is the earliest host of this virus that I can track down. Oh, which one should I choose?!!

 

So here I am on my couch—too weak to talk, to walk, to do anything other than write to you all and tell you to stay away from me. Stay far away. I’m doing my best to do my part too. I watched my church service on-line. And I’m cuddling with my blankets. My husband is racing off to church right now to cover our home fellowship table that we totally forgot to attend at the first service because my cold distracted us from everything. I didn’t even know it was day lights savings day until I hopped on-line to read a little Japan news before catching the service, only to find the service was already 30 minutes deep at 9:30.

 

I had so many plans this weekend. Plans to organize Kanan’s room with all the baby stuff we pulled from the garage. Plans to clean. Plans to grocery shop. If I don’t get it done today than it will be chaos next week trying to balance work and wifing, parenting, and cleaning and a cold. Oh yes, and planning out last-minute details to Kanan’s birthday party next weekend. So I have today left of this waste of a weekend.  I don’t pick up Kanan until 4 today. So have some time to try to muster up the strength to get off this couch and at least fold a load of laundry that has been sitting on my bed the last week. A week? Yes…because I went from nursing my son, to a day of work and then nursing my own cold after  long days at work that even included a back to school night. I have had no time. As for  Owen, he has been amazing. While that laundry does need to be folded—it is the least I can do. He has cleaned out the garage, cleaned the kitchen, cleaned and organized the living room, cleared out space in Kanan’s room for the baby stuff, designed a video-reel for an actor friend of ours, written a paper, and studied for mid-terms. All the while, while still coughing up the last remains of this virus that debilitated him 10 days ago. Yes, he still has lingering remains. I’m telling you, it is the cold-virus from the Antechamber of you-know-where.