Making up for good year with cold bug

Curing the common cold. It’s a deal no one has ever been able to close on. Consequently, billions of us get two to four colds a year.

We’ve learned how to immunize against many diseases including polio, measles, mumps, chicken pox and even flu, shingles and pneumonia. But a case of the sniffles is too big an order. The most commonly repeated advice on colds is to go see your doctor, who will tell you to rest and take it easy for a week or you can just rest and take it easy and the cold will go away in a week to 10 days.

I’ve had a pretty fortunate run of late. I’m not sure I’ve had a full-on head cold for the last year, but I’ve made up for it in the last 10 days.

At first I thought I was just having allergic reaction to the elm tree seeds, and I probably was at that, but it kept getting worse. It got better after a week and I successfully managed to pass the virus off to my sweet wife. In the meantime, I’m getting better but the last three days I’ve being strangled by a never-ending snot stream.

Through the interim, I employed all the cold remedy methods I know. I slammed down Vitamin C early in the game. Once my throat got scratchy I bought orange juice and drank that three times a day. I went to bed early and took medicine to help me sleep. I finished off the over-the-counter cough syrup my wife had bought a few weeks earlier.

With a compromised immune system, my poor wife can get six or eight colds a year, or if we don’t pay attention she might just get one cold and keep it all winter long.

Amazingly enough, she got a cold about a month ago that she rebounded from quickly with over-the-counter measures. A few days into this strain and it was apparent she wasn’t going to fare so well this time.

After she barked and hacked all night the other night, I called her doctor and ordered up the heavy-duty cough medicine. I know it’s heavy-duty because the insurance doesn’t cover it and the last round cost like $80. But it does shut down her cough and get her to sleep. My mom, who’s just recovering from her own bout with this bug, asked what the medicine was. I told her I thought it might be liquid heroin based on the cost and how fast it works. My wife overheard the comment and didn’t like it one bit.

As for myself, I’m feeling much better now and have plans to get outside and away from my barking and suffering wife. I figure if I get in enough time outdoors I should be right back where I started with the allergies in no time.

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at: [email protected]