It’s one of those moments. You can run, but can you escape?
From the other side of the bed, you hear a deep, wracking cough. The sound of your mate. He wasn’t feeling well earlier and is now manifesting the signs of a chest cold … or bronchitis … or …
I won’t write the word.
Commonsense screams grab your gear and run. Wear a breathing mask. Start mega-doses of vitamin C. Because you will get it. Probably, you already have but symptoms won’t show up for a few days.
As quickly as those unworthy thoughts arise, you shut them down. What kind of mate abandons ship and shared bed at a time of need? A voice in your head is shouting “One who wants to survive, that’s who.” But you tell her to shut up too. Instead, you go to the kitchen, make tea, bring aspirin and deliver it to his bedside. Wondering how much tea will be delivered to you in the middle of the night after you get sick. You remind yourself such thoughts are unworthy.
Finally, as you tuck yourself back in bed for a couple of hours, you ponder if you should cancel upcoming vacation reservations because you doubt you’ll get there.
Talk about dilemmas. Ouch.
Hope you haven’t tempted fate. Made me chuckle reading your dilemma, it caused a minor one for me, like choking on my sip of coffee, ☺
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Thank you! Hope the coffee wasn’t too hot 🙂 Doesn’t every couple face this? As we get older, what was a 3-day cold 30 years ago is a month of misery now. We spend a lot of time hoping very hard we WON’T get sick. Of course, something always comes around and we get it because everyone gets it.
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Hey, it ain’t my fault!! I didn’t start this. If I could shoot this cold and send it to boot hill, I’d do it faster than Doc Holiday putting Johnny Ringo out of his misery.
Speaking of misery, ye gads!
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I get it. Colds are miserable. And people who have a cold are miserable. YOU are miserable. I’m am only a little miserable. You have several percentage points on me on the misery scale.
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Love the post, don’t love the dilemma…know it all too well! Tell that mate of yours to get well in a hurry. 🙂
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Thank you 🙂 I keep telling him. I wish I could tell myself the same thing, but I’m already feeling “it” coming on. Tis the season, but I don’t have to like it.
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Oh that’s nasty business. Don’t tell me the cold season is here already. Have you tried echinacea tea? I find it strengthens your immune system.
Leslie
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Echinacea, vitamin C, anything else I can think of. I have enough immune system to take a long time to get it, but it’s a delay, not a reprieve.
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Positive thinking helps too.
Leslie
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I’m with you. RUN!!!!
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I turned down the opportunity to accompany him to the doctor. Every time I’m in a doctor’s waiting room, I come down with something horrible a few days later.
I can run, but there’s no hiding. By the time your partner is symptomatic, you’ve been exposed and it’s just a matter of time. It’s the downside to a lovely, warm marriage. The germs we share. Chili’s cooking in the kitchen. Maybe it’ll sterilize my system🙂
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I hope so. Chili sounds good. 🙂
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Smells good, too. Time to eat some!
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Chileh is the cure for what ails you…
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I know this feeling. Whenever David caught a cold he would pass it on to me. His colds generally lasted about three days, mine would be over a week. I have not had a cold in over a year until now. I’m just getting over one.
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This will be our first in about a year … last October, I believe. And I’m pretty sure we picked it up in the doctor’s waiting room. I try to never go near hospitals or doctors offices this time of year. That’s where the sick people are!
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Yes, I agree. Doctor’s waiting rooms are very unhealthy places to be. A lot of people with colds have come into the Op Shop where I do my volunteering. I wish they would stay home not spread their germs around the neighbourhood. It doesn’t help that the shop is located at a school.
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sick again before a vacation- NOOOOOO!!! I started taking Zicam and I do believe it helps. That and my hot water with apple cider vinegar, turmeric, cinnamon, honey and lemon. Drink it down and it’ll cure what ails ya! Feel better Garry!! and stay healthy Marilyn!
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Tea with honey and lemon seems to help some. Did last night. Garry wouldn’t take the other stuff, trust me on that. He just wouldn’t. Not an herbal kind of guy. For some reason, we seem to get sick every year about this time. Maybe it’s because this is when the first colds come around. Doctor seems unimpressed. Virus, she says. Just … wait it out. It’s just that at our ages viruses aren’t gone in a few days. They seem to hang around for weeks.
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My husband wouldn’t THINK of drinking my concoction either- I’d rather get better faster and try anything!! Everyone in school is sick already, and I had it last week but drugged myself and slept over the weekend which did help. Feel better!!
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I will also swallow pretty much anything if I think it might work, but Garry will not eat what he doesn’t like. Peas. Lima beans. Corn not on the cob (but will eat if ON the cob, go figure that one out). Oatmeal. Peanut butter. And anything green and weird. He’s 74 and isn’t going to change his mind, either 🙂
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I guess Kale must be on that list too 😀
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Run away! Every man for himself!
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We dont give each other colds…..but we do get them from the grandkids…lol…gotta love them..
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Yes. And we pick them up in doctor’s offices — the WORST place along with pharmacies. My granddaughter is 20, so we are all laid low by passing viruses.
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My grandkids range from 1 year to 15 years old – and my house is a revolving door – they come and go – and leave their germs on the way out….lol
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