Almost immediately after I rose from bed this morning, I spent 15 minutes or so in a violent coughing fit. It escalated to the point where at least twice, after coughing up phlegm, I gasped for air, and I wondered if I would choke to death on my own spit. I found this kind of ironic, because George Washington died in the middle of December from a similar thing, and I have been flying his personal banner at half mast at my house in commemoration of his passing. Eventually it passed, and I have felt much better this morning since then, but for a while I was a bit worried.
I remember very well the last time I was sick. I taught Microbiology last in Spring 2012, and since we find ourselves proximal to many infectious agents, at least half the students and teachers get sick every term. Everything we handle is a level 1 human irritant only, which allows us to innoculate, test, identify, and culture things without running any great risk to our health. I suspect that these additional pests make it more likely for real human irritants to get a foothold because our immune system has too many different targets to fight simultaneously. In any case, we all felt lousy at least one week that term, and it has been fortunately a long time since I was sick.
Despite my cold, I endeavor whenever I can to exercise and rest at every opportunity. There's nobody there to take care of me, and until Christmas Eve, almost all that I ate was soup. I like winter time because it means soup and because soup means I lose weight, but I have very little gumption to do much, and the worst part for me was that my cough really sapped me of joy this Christmas season. I am fairsure I caught this by handling something in public that was contaminated, perhaps a door on a refrigerator at the supermarket. It makes me feel very happy that I don't get sick more than once per year usually.
With all of my complaints sometimes, I feel very blessed to have my health as a general rule. Sometimes when I jog, I thank God that not only I am inclined to run but that I CAN run. Some people have no legs or other problems, and so they can't do as easily as I at least what I choose to do. I frequently tell people to work on their health because it's a key to happiness, and I know that if I had been healthier I would have enjoyed the season more. I didn't make it out to look at lights at the cactus garden or walk the neighborhoods because I was trying to keep warm, rested, and hydrated.
When you have your health, you can enjoy your life. Good health, as a consequence of God's grace, good nutrition and physical exercise, meant that I am able to travel the country, get out every weekend, work long hours, and get around to family events. I rarely get sick, and usually when I do it doesn't last more than a few days. I have had this since last Friday, and I am just about fed up waiting for it to pass. When it does, I am sure I will quickly forget what it's like to be sick and take my health for granted, but today I am more acutely aware of things I normally do that enrich my own life that I found myself ill inclined to do in favor of a hopefully speedy recovery.
For the rest of you, I know whatever this is has spread around this year. If you are ill, I wish you a speedy recovery. If you are well, think about how you value your health. It is easy to take something for granted until it is taken from you.
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