Coughing Like It’s 1899*

January 27, 2009

Coughing Like It’s 1899*

Bright and early Saturday morning, I found myself in the waiting room of my doctor’s office wearing a SARS mask. Diseased- even by their standards- and without a scheduled appointment, I hunkered down in a corner for the hour and a half wait, feverishly trying to avoid the stares of the more physically fit. I know no one actually knew who I was underneath that thing and that yes, it is very important for preventing the spread of germs; but I was embarrassed just the same; tugging my coat and hat closer around me.

I thought maybe I’d just gotten the flu. As it turns out, I have whooping cough. Whooping cough. As in coughing spasms that leave me both unable to breath and puking. For fun, it comes with a 103° fever and the feeling that I’ve been in a roll-over accident. So, you know, better than the flu. It can even last for up to six weeks!

When all was said and done, I got a z pac and some cough syrup with codeine. Whooping cough, for all it’s old timey nuance, is alive and well. And treatable with the Cadillac of antibiotics.

Which is great because I’ve got a little over a week to kick this bastard to the curb. The boy and I have a pre-Valentine’s Day rendezvous planned and this is anything but a ladylike sickness!

*A personal thank you to today’s parents who’d “rather not” get their children immunized against such preventable diseases, providing a population with all sorts of unexpected history lessons via illness.

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