Illness…
It’s been said that if you don’t have good health, you don’t have anything. While not exactly true – many are surviving and experiencing their blessings with less-than-perfect health – it certainly feels true when a virus comes to town.
I knew this one had gotten me several weeks ago, when first one side of my throat felt stabbed and then the other side settled into a more generalized sore throat.
Two days earlier, I’d eaten lunch at a local burrito shop and noticed, only after I’d ordered and become committed to staying there, that the order-taker/cashier was sniffing and sniveling with a red nose. Clearly, she was descending into the special hell that is flu. I tried hard to keep my distance from her, but I could only do so much about that. After my food came, I moved far across the dining room from her, but then she came out into the dining room to a table near mine, and put her head down into her hands. The co-dependant mother in me almost insisted that she go home that minute to take care of herself and to avoid exposing others. I crossed myself when I left and took some Zicam up my nose and prayed that I’d dodged a bullet.
I tried to keep from obsessing on my exposure to her illness and did pretty well. But, two days later, a freezing rain came to town. I worked for several hours in my studio and then decided to get some lunch. Then the rain came, but I needed to go to the grocery. Once I’d shopped and loaded my car, I came home to cook. After dinner, I noticed the first symptoms of illness, and I knew it would be a Big One.
The upshot is that this is not the sickest I’ve ever been. But I have relapsed twice since the original onslaught. I’m not sure I caught exactly what she had. There were certainly other exposures to run into. Until my second relapse, I did not have chills and fever. My sore throat lasted only the first 24 hours. But the congestion and sinus involvement has tired me, made it hard to breathe, kept me drained and spacey. After the first five days, I felt I was getting over it. And then it took me down again, a clone to the first chapter. And then I felt I’d beaten it again, and it took me down again. This third time has been hardest.
I’ve had to relinquish my normal life. I’ve had to hand the reins over to my body and illness to dictate when to sleep and when to wake. When signs of a bacterial secondary infection finally showed up, I knew it was no longer just viral. It was time to start using naturopathic “antibiotics.” From my father, I have inherited a deadly allergy to medical antibiotics, and so I cannot resort to them. Goldenseal, garlic and Echinacea must stand in. I come off all dairy. I sip fenugreek seed tea for expectorant. Eventually these, and my strong constitution, overcome microbial invaders. But it takes awhile. I usually go through laryngitis, and I’m certainly heading into that now.
What troubles me is not just lost time in my life, time when I need to be working hard in my studio and getting ready for spring shows. Nor the personal discomfort of illness, which everyone experiences sometimes. What troubles me is that bird flu pandemic might be on its way across the globe and as a profit-driven culture, we are often driven to keep working, shopping and interacting with others when we are contagious. I don’t know the cost of man-hours lost from colds and flu each year, but it must be extremely high. Our work ethic keeps us going out until we can no longer. And therefore we continue to expose others and also to risk exposing ourselves to still more microbes right when our immune systems are already challenged. I’m as guilty as the next person, although I think about these things.
As a mom, I’ve been pretty good at teaching my sons to notice when they are challenged or ill, and to drop in their tracks and begin taking care. I need to pay more attention to this myself. And we as a nation need to discuss this. In a time when we’re addicted to antibiotics as the solution to everything, we may fail to realize that we are exhausting the use of antibiotics by taking them too often. To defeat strengthened microbes, the antibiotics keep getting stronger. Some are almost at the level of chemotherapy now. Researchers predict a time when they no longer work and we are plunged into a pre-antibiotic world with tough, resistant microbes to plague us.
I think it should become a cultural value that people with colds and flu do not go to school, to work, to church, to sporting events. We need to quit glorifying as “heroes” athletes who push through injury and pain to win their pennants, while ignoring the screams of their bodies. There are certainly times when we should push through minor discomfort and illness, but as a cultural norm, we are risking the health of our population. “Normal” colds and flu are bad enough. But when the really bad ones come, our patterns and habits will run contrary to our real interests if we don’t drop in our tracks, isolate ourselves, take care of ourselves, rest enough, and really get well before venturing out into the world again.
To fail to grasp this simple lesson will be to our peril.
.........................................................................................................................................@
It’s been said that if you don’t have good health, you don’t have anything. While not exactly true – many are surviving and experiencing their blessings with less-than-perfect health – it certainly feels true when a virus comes to town.
I knew this one had gotten me several weeks ago, when first one side of my throat felt stabbed and then the other side settled into a more generalized sore throat.
Two days earlier, I’d eaten lunch at a local burrito shop and noticed, only after I’d ordered and become committed to staying there, that the order-taker/cashier was sniffing and sniveling with a red nose. Clearly, she was descending into the special hell that is flu. I tried hard to keep my distance from her, but I could only do so much about that. After my food came, I moved far across the dining room from her, but then she came out into the dining room to a table near mine, and put her head down into her hands. The co-dependant mother in me almost insisted that she go home that minute to take care of herself and to avoid exposing others. I crossed myself when I left and took some Zicam up my nose and prayed that I’d dodged a bullet.
I tried to keep from obsessing on my exposure to her illness and did pretty well. But, two days later, a freezing rain came to town. I worked for several hours in my studio and then decided to get some lunch. Then the rain came, but I needed to go to the grocery. Once I’d shopped and loaded my car, I came home to cook. After dinner, I noticed the first symptoms of illness, and I knew it would be a Big One.
The upshot is that this is not the sickest I’ve ever been. But I have relapsed twice since the original onslaught. I’m not sure I caught exactly what she had. There were certainly other exposures to run into. Until my second relapse, I did not have chills and fever. My sore throat lasted only the first 24 hours. But the congestion and sinus involvement has tired me, made it hard to breathe, kept me drained and spacey. After the first five days, I felt I was getting over it. And then it took me down again, a clone to the first chapter. And then I felt I’d beaten it again, and it took me down again. This third time has been hardest.
I’ve had to relinquish my normal life. I’ve had to hand the reins over to my body and illness to dictate when to sleep and when to wake. When signs of a bacterial secondary infection finally showed up, I knew it was no longer just viral. It was time to start using naturopathic “antibiotics.” From my father, I have inherited a deadly allergy to medical antibiotics, and so I cannot resort to them. Goldenseal, garlic and Echinacea must stand in. I come off all dairy. I sip fenugreek seed tea for expectorant. Eventually these, and my strong constitution, overcome microbial invaders. But it takes awhile. I usually go through laryngitis, and I’m certainly heading into that now.
What troubles me is not just lost time in my life, time when I need to be working hard in my studio and getting ready for spring shows. Nor the personal discomfort of illness, which everyone experiences sometimes. What troubles me is that bird flu pandemic might be on its way across the globe and as a profit-driven culture, we are often driven to keep working, shopping and interacting with others when we are contagious. I don’t know the cost of man-hours lost from colds and flu each year, but it must be extremely high. Our work ethic keeps us going out until we can no longer. And therefore we continue to expose others and also to risk exposing ourselves to still more microbes right when our immune systems are already challenged. I’m as guilty as the next person, although I think about these things.
As a mom, I’ve been pretty good at teaching my sons to notice when they are challenged or ill, and to drop in their tracks and begin taking care. I need to pay more attention to this myself. And we as a nation need to discuss this. In a time when we’re addicted to antibiotics as the solution to everything, we may fail to realize that we are exhausting the use of antibiotics by taking them too often. To defeat strengthened microbes, the antibiotics keep getting stronger. Some are almost at the level of chemotherapy now. Researchers predict a time when they no longer work and we are plunged into a pre-antibiotic world with tough, resistant microbes to plague us.
I think it should become a cultural value that people with colds and flu do not go to school, to work, to church, to sporting events. We need to quit glorifying as “heroes” athletes who push through injury and pain to win their pennants, while ignoring the screams of their bodies. There are certainly times when we should push through minor discomfort and illness, but as a cultural norm, we are risking the health of our population. “Normal” colds and flu are bad enough. But when the really bad ones come, our patterns and habits will run contrary to our real interests if we don’t drop in our tracks, isolate ourselves, take care of ourselves, rest enough, and really get well before venturing out into the world again.
To fail to grasp this simple lesson will be to our peril.
.........................................................................................................................................@
posted by Luna @ 11:10 AM
1 comments
