The Nasty and the Very Nice

The past 5 days have seen virus particles invading my body, spreading havoc throughout my sinuses and my lungs.

It all started Wednesday evening while I was at work. I started feeling a little tight in the chest. The occasional cough sprang up but nothing major. I figured I'd caught the Nasty Cold that one of my coworkers was suffering from. He'd not been in since Monday but I'd seen him sniffling and sneezing, wiping futilely at his reddened nose, looking rather bedraggled on that day.

Thursday morning saw me awaken with plugged sinuses, a very tight chest and a horrible barking cough that made my head feel like it was exploding with each hack.

I'd been mowed down by a Very Nasty Bug.

I called in sick for work.

I spent the day napping off and on, which is something that I rarely do. I swear I slept more during the day that I had during the night. On the advice of a couple of friends, I picked up some Cold FX along with the cold medication. I had Nyquil on hand for sleeping.... But I still felt like things were worsening.

And I was right. Friday was even worse, with feverish periods scattered through the almost constant coughing and trying to hork up chunks of lung tissue. Well, not literally, but I am sure you know what I mean.

Every time I lay down, I could feel all that gooey mucus shift from one side of my sinuses to the other. The sneezing began as well. The coughing continued but it just wasn't loosening up. The only time anything came out was first thing in the morning.

I called in sick to work for Friday's shift as well.

The guy I've been seeing came over Friday evening. Brave man... He brought a movie and we had KFC for supper. Despite me being such a sicko, he still wanted to spend time with me.

I thought that was Very Nice... and a very good sign that things are developing well... because I wanted to spend time with him as well.

Saturday, I couldn't control the coughing at all so I had to pick up some cough syrup. I had already taken the cold pills that I had bought a couple days before, but was coughing so badly that I took a swig of the syrup when I got back to my truck. Needless to say, the double dosing on some of the ingredients made me feel like I'd had one drink too many! I had to drive home very carefully! Didn't want to get pulled over for impaired driving, or get into an accident. But the cough suppressant seemed to be working.

Needless to say, I missed work that day as well.

The last time I missed three days' work in a row, I'd had surgery on my hand and was off for 8 weeks!

Today, during the day at least, the cough was much improved and seemed to have loosened up a fair bit. I actually feel better. My sinuses are now mostly just annoyingly runny. The cough has been only occasional during the day, although as the evening has progressed, it has gotten worse. I seem to run that way whenever I have a chest cold... evening is always worse for coughing. Maybe because I am getting tired? I don't know.

The downside is that now my voice is down a sporadic and rather husky squeak. Earlier in the day, as it was fading, I could have made a killing on one of those 1-900 numbers with a sexy husky bedroom voice. Now, you can barely hear me. And I've just noticed the glands in my neck are somewhat enlarged... *sigh*

On the upside, I don't have a sore throat at all.

Again my new beau wanted to spend time with me, so I went to his place for the afternoon and evening, where we watched the local football team trounce their arch rivals rather soundly. He let me watch some equestrian stuff after that was over, so I got to catch the last round of the CN Nations Cup in Calgary (one of the biggest show jumping events of the year with $1 million in prizes). I don't know much about football and he doesn't know much about horses, so we both learned some new stuff today. He even fed me pizza for supper and we watched a movie in the evening.

But as the evening wore on, my stamina was dying out, and I had to call it a night earlier than either of us would have liked. But it's going well... it's been four weeks now... and I am pleased. No hang ups, no fears, no weirdness coming out. He seems like a very normal, well adjusted man who is happy to get to know me.

And that is Very Nice Indeed!