IT’S ALL COMING BACK TO ME

It’s all coming back to me now.  I’ve been here before. 

The no energy days, the scratchy throat, the runny nose: yep – this is what an every day, everybody gets them, run of the mill head cold feels like.  Funny how those two years of masks and isolation kept them out of our house too.  I didn’t miss them one bit.

This is not me comparing a head cold to the other options out there - there are much, much worse things to have – it’s just how soon we forget what a head filled with mucus feels like.  Two days ago my sinuses were so full and enflamed that my teeth actually hurt.  That’s something I forgot could happen.   I didn’t miss it one bit.

I had also forgotten how colds can sneak up on you.  Tuesday you’re feeling fine but seem to be sneezing a lot.  Wednesday morning you have a tickle in your throat but it goes away after breakfast.  Thursday is a lazy day because that big job you had planned seems like way too much work now, and you don’t have the energy … besides, you’re retired and it can wait.

And then, voila! Friday your head hurts and the Kleenex box becomes your best friend.

Maybe, if I had been paying attention and not so out of practise at recognizing the symptoms I could have thrown a bunch of vitamin C at it.  I could have gotten more sleep.  I could have made a big pot of chicken soup.  But no, I paid no attention to the warning signs and now, here I am in full-blown head cold mode. 

I can only breathe through one nostril at a time.  If I’m lucky.

I know where the throat lozenges are but I’m not so desperate that I’ve had to use them.  Yet.  (I hate them almost as much as Buckley’s)

I discovered that during the Covid years they have made print much smaller on medication packages.  I literally cannot read them in the middle of the night without my glasses on.  Imagine my surprise the next morning when I realized that the package should have been thrown out BEFORE Covid because it was that far past its expiration date.  The print size could not be blamed on newer packaging, but possibly on older eyes.

A couple of questions here:  Is it possible for the entire package to shrink due to old age?  You know, like a block of cheese if you let it dry out?  I’m sure I was able to read those words when I bought it.

Also, does past due sinus medication get stronger as it ages?  Or lose its potency?  I did live to see another day so it’s not deadly.  And I found a newer package for the next time – with my glasses on and in broad daylight.

I am now at my husband’s favourite part of any cold I’ve ever had.  I have lost my voice.  He likely has two days of peace and quiet to look forward to

So, I am preparing for the next step on this well-travelled path: we live in the same house, we share the same space … almost certainly he will take my regular cold germs and morph them into a raging case of Man Cold.

I’ve got the vitamin C out, a pot of soup on the go, and have restocked the Kleenex boxes in every room. 

Like I said, it’s all coming back to me now.