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9 October 2004

The Long March to Well

I never used to get sick. All through high school and college, I don't remember a single day or class I missed because I was actually legitimately sick. This year, it's been different.

I never used to get sick. Actually, I’m sure that’s not true. My selective (and terrible) memory makes it hard for me to make a fair comparison. But all through high school and college, I don’t remember a single day or class I missed because I was actually legitimately sick. I got colds for sure, but mostly the kind that were here and gone in a few days and just barely put a dent in my week.

This year, it’s been different. Just since December, I have been treated to at least three full-on knock-down drag-out bonafide illnesses, sick days and all. One of them even caught me so hard that I went straight to the doctor begging for antibiotics, something I just Don’t Do when I have a plain old cold. (Everybody says there’s nothing you can do for a cold but wait it out and drink liquids until you explode, so I figure why get modern medicine involved.)

I don’t know what it is. I get good sleep, I take vitamins, I eat a reasonably healthy diet, hell I even exercise. All the things my momma told me to do, and I never did. And I never got sick. And all of a sudden now I do what I’m supposed to and I can’t turn around without catching a cold.

Today I woke up to the tenth day in a row of coughing, sniffling, sweating and aching. The last couple of days (in what I hope are the final stages of this sickness) have been almost surreal. I watched the presidential debates last night at Molly’s behind a feverish cloud, and limped home after drinking cough syrup, hot tea and ice water all night. Today, I wasn’t going to take it anymore. Today, I gorged on sleep and fluids in a last-ditch attempt to rout the persistent enemy. Laura became my ally, watching movies and doing laundry while I napped, and force-feeding me pitchers of water and bowls of lentil soup when I woke up. No more messing around, taking DayQuil and going on with a normal day. This time it’s for keeps. This time I’m getting well.

See you in the morning, I’m going back to the front.

Comments

  1. 9 October 2004

    Robert J. Bingaman

    The men who went back to the front rarely came back you know. It sure sounds nice to have someone waiting with soup and ice water. I should get sick.

    Well, you’re 23 years old. Welcome to Normal Adulthood.

  2. 10 October 2004

    Laura

    I also recommended that he go to the gym to get his circulation going, sweat toxins out, and clear his air passages. He looked at me like I had lost my mind.

  3. 10 October 2004

    Robert

    You have.

  4. 10 October 2004

    Wilson

    I know, right?

  5. 11 October 2004

    lindseylu

    laura is actually right, but I have to say…i can’t imagine any sick person actually wanting to work out. if you want to get out toxins go on the molases fast. I hear it’s a doozy.

  6. 11 October 2004

    Robert

    There are better ways to fight a virus. The clogging of the sinuses makes exercising for someone much harder, should they be out of practice.

    The American College of Sports Medicine says to feel free to exercise moderately — it won’t affect how long your symptoms last or how severe they are. Exeercise moderately means to understand who you are, and not be stupid if you aren’t someone who already has a good, strict work out regimine which your body is used to. I think we all know Wilson isn’t there yet. Besides, there are very few reports (of note) that say that exercise actually helps, most just say it doesn’t hurt (again, if one makes a habit of it already…a good workout habbit takes longer to form than Wilson has known this wonderful physical force in his life).

    Like exercise, sex is known to be very good for a virus or cold. But that is under the assumption that it happens often. If you were to tell a seventy-year-old to go sex his wife three times this week because it could really sweat out those toxins, he would probably kill both himself, and his wife, as they would both certainly be out of practice (this is a pre-viagra scenario). Is Wilson’s story so different?

  7. 11 October 2004

    Wilson

    Thank you Rob for that delightful image of dead sweaty naked old people.

  8. 11 October 2004

    Robert

    I figured it was one you were used to (in a singular sense). Introspective really.

  9. 11 October 2004

    Laura

    Ok, gross, back on topic, I think it’s (obviously) different for every person. I make it a priority to go to the gym when I’m sick because it becomes the 30 minutes of the day when I feel human again. And I do feel like it kick starts my immune system— I try to go when I’m starting to feel symptoms and it often staves it off for me. I also have a lot of energy, even when I’m sick, and I never lose my appetite (energy source) with a common cold.

    Wilson was pretty much at death’s door on Saturday though, with no energy and very little appetite. Maybe not the best suggestion for that day.

    But let’s give him a little credit- he’s at the prime age of 23, walks to work every day, and I’m sure would be able to handle cardiovascular exercise, even when he was under the weather. I probably shouldn’t admit this, but he runs faster, uses heavier weights, and will before too long be a better rock climber than I am, and I’ve been exercising regularly for years.

  10. 11 October 2004

    Robert

    Um, yeah…but you’re a girl. I mean, if you were better at those things, I would have to ask the age old question…who wears the pants in this relationship?

    As for the exercise, like I said before, I think you’re right - people who exercise often, or are just “active” are probably aided my such activity, so long as their action, and their illness - are moderate. I myself get sick when I stop being active, as my eating habits change (become less responsible, healthy) and I become vulnerable. I was at my strongest over the summer, working 10 hour shifts of real actual labor (you know…like standing up). It was a habit, and it had its effect on many other habits, including sleep and appetite. Just read this today during class. Some good, basic advice.

    When I light-heartedly criticized your bad advice for WIlson, Laura, I was taking into account a Wilson you don’t yet know, but one I have known for years. Not a lazy wimp, although I love to frame it in those terms, but someone who’s most basic habit was large amounts of sleep, and…inactivity. So exercise didn’t sound unheathly for him in and of itself, it just sounded…ridiculous. I was afraid something would happen to him. I couldn’t imagine it really, to the extent that I know you probably exercise anyway.

    I mean, really (others will attest), you should have known Wilson this summer. It was normal Wilson, only dramatically exaggerated. The guy was a zombie. Sitting down made him tired, and running around a track, climbing a rock, even having a girlfriend - in terms of energy level, desire, what have you…unthinkable.

    I’m glad you are making him better, fitter, happier. But if you’re trying to kill him off for his money, he promised me all of his shoe horns.

  11. 11 October 2004

    Laura

    Hmm, interesting. I’d heard a little bit about the whole new Wilson/old Wilson thing, but it’s still a bit of a mystery to me.

  12. 11 October 2004

    Vivian

    Wilson, if you come up tom. and make me go for morning jogs, eat giant health shakes, or, at any point, ask me to feel your ‘pecs’ I am making you sleep over with rob at Ashley’s place.

    I like an ‘Energized’ wilson, but all this talk about a new wilson is scary.

    that is all. I have set the ‘ground-rules’ for the coming week.

    the end.

  13. 12 October 2004

    Robert

    Let me second those rules. For 5 days, I get the old lazy bastard back. That’s all I ask.

  14. 12 October 2004

    lindseylu

    Have fun in New York. Say hello to Sonic Youth for me.