My Uncommon Cold

As we played through our Bach sonata, I occasionally stopped to catch the drip from my nose or to cough. Deborah, my musical partner and doctor, said at one point, "Are you alright?" To which I responded, "I think I’m just allergic to the fall leaves. It can’t be a cold because I never had a sore throat." I jokingly added, "If it’s not better in 3 days, I’ll contact my doctor."

But as we sat down to eat dinner together later, my nose had started to run in torrents to the point where she offered me fresh Kleenex and pronounced, "You.definitely.have.a.cold." She even asked me if I needed a written excuse to miss work.

I probably had picked up something on the flight home. I admit to having felt tired and not my usual self since getting back, but I had just attributed it to jetlag.

Meanwhile, my husband, who had the same symptoms as I did, had taken Airborne and was totally fine. I always thought that was just a waste of money, but maybe it really works. Now I’m wondering why I didn’t jump for my little bottle of ImmuneUp, that wonderful Mikael Zayat concoction of essential oils which in past years has helped me ward off URI’s. I suppose because I never thought I was sick.

When I got home I started feeling guilty for exposing Deborah and her husband to whatever variation on a virus I actually have. Then I realized, she sees sick people for a living – people a lot sicker than I am, so why in the world should I feel guilty?

No sooner had I sent her an apologetic e-mail, but she responded to say how much she had enjoyed playing together again and told me to rest up and get well.

This is definitely not my usual cold, which progresses through multiple predictable stages, but my nose is still running and I have an occasional cough or sneeze. Maybe my body is on strike because I didn’t give it proper time to recuperate. I’ll probably never know, but I’m sure whatever it is will be gone in a couple of days.