The respiratory specialist who has treated me for pneumonia three times in the last four years didn’t mince words:
"Were you born stupid or is this a level of incompetence you achieved later in life?"
Good question. I didn’t have an answer.
He was unhappy that I didn’t take his advice earier and ease off a busy schedule so my annual bout with bronchitis didn’t turn into something worse. I didn’t take it easy and, sure enough, the bronchitis moved on to pneumonia.
I go through this song and dance with him about this time every year. I get a cold, often from getting chilled while photographing a nighttime football game or so other event in chilly temperatures. The cold activates the chronic bronchitis and he tells me to slow down and get better. I didn’t show down last year and avoided the pneumonia that hobbled me the two previous years. So I thought I could defy the odds again this year.
Wrong.
I guess I’m going to have to recognize that, at 60, I’m just not that tough. Injuries take long to heal, colds and the flu linger longer and pneumonia requires two-to-three weeks of rest to overcome.
But the FCHS varsity football team is in the district playoffs, basketball season is underway and the holiday season approaches.
I’m a workaholic. Always have been, always will be.
So maybe I can beat the odds one more time.
Maybe I was just born stupid. Odd. My mother always told me she downed the dumb ones. Guess I slipped through.
The trick is to be agreesive when you feel a cold coming on.
Triple doses of vitamin C. Take a hot steamy shower so hot it makes you cough. A lot. When you can’t stand the heat any longer, wrap warmly, go to bed.
Vick’s on the chest with a heating pad. A vaporizer. When you have semi recovered, repeat the hot shower. Cough.
Repeat this two or three times before retiring. Sleep with the heating pad, the Vick’s and the vaporizer.
I usually take some over the counter decongestant and cough medicine with a cough expectorant.
If you get it early, you can keep the pneumonia at bay.
I had pneumonia once 18 years ago. No recurrences.
My former fiance the chiro turned me on to this remedy.
It works.
Good luck.
Sherry
PS If you take enough of the dozy cough meds, you won’t be a workaholic for a while.
I wondered where you have been. I may not comment on your rants, but I read every one!
My son is older than you and is in excellent shape. He too is a workaholic but sleeps a lot. Take Sherry’s advice and you will live forever. Winter is coming, chief, watch your every move. Keep your brain engaged and do not get into the drugs that are offered for your relief.
Sandy