Sunday, November 18, 2012
Sudafed Psychosis
As the cold and flu season wears on I think we might have to rename this blog "The cold medicine made me do it."
And I am sticking by that defense when people ask me why on Friday night I inexplicably sent them the one word text message "Poop". And then proceeded to begin every sentence with "Bitches be like..." if someone had the misfortune of responding to my "poop". Luckily my spouse was home and managed to wrangle my phone away from me before I called my boss and demanded to be paid in marshmallows.
I try to be the spin doctor, and put a positive slant on things so that I don't wallow in the misery of them. Its hard though when you are deep in the throes of mucus infiltration. As wrinkled tissues and cough drops spill out of the pockets of your fleece robe. And every word and cough leaving a scratching reminder in your throat. It is a misery ridiculous and disproportionate to what is actually going on in our bodies when we have the flu. About the only spin that can doctor this bout up is how I can use it to keep me honest. My research this semester is in mathematical epidemiology. In particular I am studying the impact of contact patterns on disease spread. And its easy to lose yourself in cool dispassionate numbers and graphs. It takes on a whole new perspective when you know the exact misery of each new "infected" contact you add to the pile. It makes you want to be as honest as possible and model reality as close as you can. It increases the desire to learn something from the model that could possibly, one day, spare us from at least a portion of this torture.
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This semester has been particularly nasty as far as germs go. I have been trying my best to stay healthy by dodging the germ spreaders. Someone has been coughing snotty flu sick in at least one class the entire semester. Thankfully my obsessive handwashing has been working with the exception of a staph infection in my throat. I would like to blame this on someone who came to school sick, but it is more likely a result of my weakened immune system not being able to control bacteria that already live on my body.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest thing to learn from studying contact patterns is that for disease to spread there must be contact. Translation being if you are sick stay home so no one has to be in contact with you. People like me with lower immunity will thank you.
The worst part of my cold-sickness is not the sore scratchy flem-filled throat, oozing flood of sticky booger goop, or the flaky dry raw nose tortured by the endless tissues tearing off the tender flesh; Its the amount of time it takes to recover, and all the responsibilities of work and school that leave me scrambling and exhausted.
ReplyDeleteBoth jobs I've had involved working with shared computers. The best thing I've found to avoid getting nasty germies is hand sanitizer. Lots and lots of hand sanitizer.
ReplyDeleteMedicine is a double-edged sword! We praise what it does to our sick bodies but hate what it does to our minds. I suppose it's all for good health's sake.
ReplyDeletei laughed so hard at the marshmellows part! hahaha :)))
ReplyDeletei usually never get sick, but i think i got food poisoning over the weekend and i've been in bed for the past 2 days. Today i finallyyyyy feel better, but i finally understand and can relate to this "sick" feeling everyone talks about.
Thanks guys. I actually feel okay but I can't stop coughing. So I'm heeding Toni's advice and staying at home and sparing you what sounds like an elephant with kennel cough.
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