Wouldn’t you know it, just when the weather was turning unseasonably nice I go and pick up some kind of super-bug virus or bacterial infection, or whatever, which laid me up in the house for a full week. And I’m still not fully cured! Yes, this one was a doozie! I think everything from my collarbone up was infected. Throat, tonsils, sinuses, eyes, ears, brain, hair. Everything hurt.
The fever, the sinus headaches, the itchy achy ears were all bad enough but the worst part of the whole ordeal was the raw sore throat. I felt like I was a flaming sword swallowing act gone horribly wrong and someone put the flame out with sharpened chain maille or something.
Either that or in my fever-induced delirium dreams I imagined that maybe some exotic, rare fire-breathing spider crawled into my mouth while I was sleeping and laid a million eggs that hatched and the little baby creatures were eating their way out of my tonsils and trachea leaving the flesh scorched and burnt. Actually, I really don’t need a fever to ramp up my imagination it works pretty good on its own. The fever only added a little bit to it. I guess I must have watched too many Twilight Zone episodes in my youth, or something.
Speaking of my youth, I can remember a similar bout with tonsillitis back in my hard-partying days of the 1970’s. A few of us Kenosee Lake regulars were having a good time at Krecsy’s cabin when I thought it was just my normal Sunday morning hang over lasting longer than usual so I went in for a little nap. You see, back in the day it wasn’t all that unusual for me to periodically take a midday “nap” during one of our good time sessions, and I don’t want to reveal all of my secrets here, but suffice it to say that when my little nap turned out to be four hours long and I wasn’t responding to the clink of fresh beers being put in the cooler or coming out of the cabin to investigate the sound of some unfamiliar young female voices the alarm bells sounded for my buddies and they came in to find me shivering under the blankets in the 95+F(35+C) cabin. Thankfully they quickly got me to the Kipling Hospital for some much-needed medical attention. Boy was I sick. I was so sick that I think I even gave up cigarette smoking for a day and a half or so.
But who likes being sick? Nobody that I know of. The only advantage of having to stay in the house for this past week was that I was at least able to watch a fair amount of the 2012 Ford World Women’s Curling Championship. Every cloud has a silver lining, I guess. Also, it’s not a suggested form of weight loss, mind you, but if you could use a few pounds off of the old belly then not being able to swallow anything other than cold water and medication will sure do the trick. As mentioned, it’s not a recommended method of weight loss.
I am pretty sure that I am not the only one who’s caught a nasty bug this year but, you know, “misery loves company”, as they say, so I thought I would share my misery with all of you. You’re welcome.
Then again, what I’ve been fighting is curable, I think, and, “this too shall pass”, for me, but recalling the events of 35+ years ago reminded me that some of my Kenossee Lake peers, from that by-gone era, may no longer be with us or may be suffering from life-threatening diseases now so I will take my little bout of illness knowing that things could always be worse. It might not feel like that for me today, but things definitely can always be worse.
“Health is not valued until sickness comes,”-Thomas Fuller (1608-1661).
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