When I started this blog I considered naming it "confessions" or "adventures of an uninsured hypochondriac" because that is exactly what I am. I ultimately decided against it because (luckily-knock on wood) I don't really get sick that often and I thought that filling up a blog with "this freckle looks weird," and "I know I’ve had this supposed gland for years but can you feel it again" stories would prove boring and repetitive. There was also the issue of staying true to character; if I write about seeing a concert under the headline “hypochondriac” and don’t mention any hypochondria, people might get confused.
The reason I am bringing all of this up is that on Memorial Day I came down with a wicked cold. I mean this bug, which went through both of my bosses, the baby, and then the nannies, lasted a good week and a half before being truly gone (assuming that it isn't still inside me waiting to attack again.) If this wasn't enough to spark my concerns that I had something horribly incurable, this was the second cold I had had in a month.
About two days after returning from Washington DC I came down with a cold which by that Friday had advanced into a sinus infection so bad that it was draining from my eyes. SEXY! The doctor-whom I rushed to see that morning because when I swallowed I had a shooting pain from my mouth to my ear- joked that I had brought home an unwanted souvenir and I easily accepted that I had indeed picked something up sleeping on a bus over night. And yes, when the draining from the eyes started I was convinced I had contracted pink eye or some sort of eye disease that would leave me blind but when it subsided after two days, all worry was gone.
The problem was that I was so relieved that I forgot my slight germaphobia and stopped taking vitamin C when the antibiotics ran out, rather then taking it for at least two weeks after all symptoms were gone to rebuild my system. The reasonable part of my brain says that this, and not a horrible autoimmune disease or a recurring sinus infection masking the almost incurable by the time it shows symptoms Sinus Cancer, is the reason I contracted the second illness in May.
I will not make that mistake again. Prevention is the best medicine and constant hand washing and the subway application of hand sanitizer really isn’t enough. Yes they help and I’m not stopping those methods but I will also be taking vitamin C from now on preventively so that I keep my sick time down to the usual 3 times a year. My apologizes to Mucenex since I will not be single handedly be keeping them in business for June the way I did in May. There are a person who doubt vitamins, that’s their right, but for me it works. Maybe it's psychological but either way, it' good enough for me.
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