Staying Home

I do not work when I am sick. I do not watch television. I do not quilt, or write letters, or do little jobs around the house.

I go to bed.

I've done pretty well this winter. People around me, including my husband, have been sharing their germs with me since about October, and this is my first cold. I've got 2 diabetics in the house, meaning they had their flu shots ages ago, and I couldn't go the same day, hence, no flu shot.

I did a stint in December with public transport, people hacking and sneezing all around me. I kept my gloves on and washed my hands. I did not get sick.

Everywhere you go these days, there are those bottles of hand-sanitizers. People are encouraged to wipe this goo all over their hands, since it kills 99% of germs.

Guess what germ it DOESN'T kill?

C-difficile.

Know what kills C-difficile?

Soap.

Wash your hands in soap and water, and wear gloves. And if you get a cold, STAY HOME!!!!!!!!!!

Get into bed! Drink fluids! Sleep!

Okay, let's see why this works. First, if your body is fighting a bug, exposing it to temperature differences for some reason makes it difficult for the body to get better. I don't know why - I just learned it from a doctor twenty or more years ago. If you don't believe me, look it up! Anyway - keeping your body the same temperature all over speeds healing. And the best way to do that is to stay in bed.

You drink fluids - this is icky, boys and girls! - to keep the mucous flowing. While you're blowing it out and coughing it up by the bucketful, you're getting better. But if it congeals, it'll sit in one spot and fester. Festering means infection and antibiotics. And of course, nobody wants to give those out these days! So the doc will keep you pleading for them, while you get sicker and sicker, till it's obvious if you don't get your pennicillin you'll die.

Simpler by far to drink liquids. Oh, and that doesn't mean coffee, colas, or beer! It means H2O. Water. Not too cold, either - this gives me the jitters - I love my near-freezing drinks, but even I submit to the logic of the situation when I am ill and let my glass sit beside me and sip from it. Oh, and five sips an hour does not constitute "drinking liquids." Let's try eight ounces (250ml) an hour - minimum!

Now, sometimes one's throat simply won't take bare water. OK, squeeze a bit of lemon into it for flavour. OK, take apple juice, but cut it 25% with water. If you simply must have a different flavour in order to get the stuff down, ok you can have a clear soft drink, like sprite or ginger ale - but it's best if it's slightly flat.

When I was young, my grandmother kept me home from school if I was sick. Everybody's parents kep them home if they were sick! We never had these practical-epidemics! But granny's formula was: for every day I'd had a fever, I stayed home a day after the fever was gone. That means, if I had a fever on Monday, I stayed home Monday and Tuesday. And the temperature was checked every couple of hours. I'm not talking raging, near-death fevers here. Two degrees for a four-hour period constituted a day of fever.

Keep washing, keep brushing your teeth. Maybe you should ask your partner to pick you up a new toothbrush, by the way, since you were coming down with this for a least a week! Get a cheap one, and throw it out, too, when you're better!

I swear by sore throat spray. The one I use is Vicks. The point is, it kills germs in the back of the throat. If I've been out for an evening and somebody has had a cold, I spray my throat after brushing my teeth. If I'm feeling a little dragged down, I spray my throat. When I've got a cold and post-nasal drip, I spray every time I get up - which is frequently, because of all the water I'm downing!

Now why, after all these precautions you aks, did I manage to get sick anyway?

Well, I've had a busy two weeks. I've been out on the weekends, I've been out several evenings. I got run down. That means my body became susceptible, and it gave out mid-morning yesterday with a whallop. And here's where I really start to rant...

DON'T GET ME STARTED!!!!!

Oh, you're so bloody indispensable are you, that it's imperative you spread your germs around? Lemme tell you something: you die tonight, they'll replace you. Simple as that.

You've got strep and you're walking around with it? Did you know that strep leads to rheumatic fever? That can be fatal, you know!

You've had bronchitis or pneumonia and you're walking around? Well listen to this precious bit I picked up from a great doctor about thirty years ago:

NO MATTER WHAT ANTIBIOTICS THEY GIVE YOU, LUNG PROBLEMS DO NOT GET BETTER WITHOUT BED REST.

BED REST. Period.

Do you really think you're doing your best work while you're feeling like this? Is your presence so angelic that your co-workers are warmed and cheered by the sight of you sniveling and puking into kleenex?

Get real. Go to bed.