Touch Me, I’m Sick

There’s nothing worse than being sick in the throes of summer. Obviously it’s always a bummer when you’re sick, but at least in the fall or winter the outdoors seems to mimic how you’re feeling on the inside; frigid and shaky, and the gray, wet, muddy landscape looks a lot like how you look on the outside as well. When you’re sick in the summer there’s a sense of being mocked by Mother Nature as you sit achy in your chair in the living room. Staring out in the blinding sunshine as neighbors frolic in their yards, while strangers bike by the house with 1,000 mile smiles sprawled on their faces.

If you didn’t already guess, I’ve got a summer cold.

It started last Thursday when I woke up with a sore throat and stuffed up head. By the time I’d gotten to work it seemed to have dissipated to nothing. No big deal. Friday morning was similar, but my throat hurt a bit more. By 1 am on Saturday morning I woke to a fire in my throat and the feeling of being stabbed in the chest when I tried coughing up the phlegm that had settled into the back of my throat. I stood at the kitchen sink gargling warm salt water for close to ten minutes. It helped and when I went back to bed I hit the zero gravity on our mattress so my big dumb head was elevated. When I woke close to 8:30 that morning I wasn’t feeling as lousy in the head, but my body was achy.

Damn. Summer cold.

There was a time when I’d get sick a lot. Summer, winter, fall, holidays, birthdays….my immune system didn’t care. Maybe because I was younger and was putting more garbage in my body. Or I drank more and pushed my immune system down to the size of a thimble, but I’d go to the doc three or four times a year with a chest cold, ear infections, throat infections,…if it involved the ear, nose, and throat I had it. Had a ton of Bronchitis and ear infections as a kid. Allergy-induced asthma was what caused me to get allergy shots from the time I was 4 to nearly 18. I even had tubes put in my ears 6 times from the time I was 5 to my 11th birthday. Don’t know what tubes in your ears are? Read this.

I remember a particular summer in early adulthood. It was the summer of 1998. I was in my early 20s and my wife and I were pretty fresh new homeowners. It was a pretty great time. Other than a dog we had no other big responsibilities. I was playing in a band with two of my cousins and a guy we found in the Wanted ads that played drums. We’d built up a decent list of covers and originals and were playing all over northeast Indiana in various dive bars. At the time it was fun and a little nerve-racking; loading equipment, unloading equipment, dealing with drunks and sometimes angry drunks demanding we play Slayer at 12 am on a Saturday night.

Anyways, in retrospect we weren’t that good but after two or three songs and a couple beers we didn’t care. We were doing it. But that year, I was sicker than I’d ever been. That summer, and I’m going to say because of hanging out in smokey bars all the time, I was in a constant state of ill. Like I must’ve been licensed to ill because that was the theme of the summer of 1998. Double ear infections, throat infections, chest colds, you name it. I had one week where I was only at work a day because I was too dizzy from a double ear infection to stand. It was awful. I had front row tickets to see Pearl Jam and couldn’t go because I was too sick.

Needless to say, by January of 1999 the band was pretty much nonexistent and I was okay with it.

At some point, though, I just stopped getting sick. Maybe exercising and losing weight and not being in smokey bars helped with that. But except for an occasional cold or allergy issue, it seemed my license to ill had been revoked.

But here I am now, getting over a summer cold. First one in a very, very long time. This past Saturday it would come in waves; I’d feel okay for a half hour or so but then I’d have body aches and my chest would get tight. I ended up watching some doc on Lollapalooza Saturday night till close to midnight. Went to bed and ended up sleeping till 9:30 am on Sunday. I spent the day watching movies and sitting in the La-Z-Boy. Even when I’m sick I can never seem to force myself to just sit and do nothing. I have to clean or pick up the house or something. But Sunday? Nah, I was a bump on a log. And you know what? It felt damn good.

By Monday things were looking better. Still congested and sore, but better than I had been. Tuesday was a little better as well. Didn’t feel the need to take any meds other than a couple Ibuprofen. And today? Today I’m pretty much on the mend. Appetite has returned and no need to prop myself up like the Elephant Man while I slept. So I think I’m well out of the woods.

By my classic summer sick standards this was a pretty weak cold, but when you’re hardly ever sick even those weak ones sting.