There are some illnesses which ARE tough (cancer, for instance), which are perceived to be tough (piles, for instance), and then there are illnesses which are very ordinary, but create tough times! The common cold is an indeed frequent and most bothersome example of the last type.
When you catch this not so uncommon common cold, your very breathing is a problem. It IS forced! Every breath indeed becomes a conscious process. You then literally understand the value of each breath that you take via your mouth, dry as dust, while your nose is overflowing like a river in spate! You are surprised at your own ability to create so much mucus which is both, embarassing and a huge block.
And then there is the temperature. You are sure it must be more than the worst, hovering somewhere between 105, and a life threatening 106. The thermometer refuses to budge, to leave its usual siting at 98! You cough, you sneeze, you sputter, but the fever is not impressed. It stays put at its usual spot!
Then there is the wondrous voice. Your usual soft silky voice disappears, and you speak in a throaty squeak which can shame any frog in the beginning of the monsoon. Oh, yes, how can you forget the site that can cause terror in the heart of the very mirror; red nose, rheumy eyes, dry as dust lips. Well, the least said, the better!
You take the coldarins, you take the steam, you guzzle lozenges. But the common cold loves your uncommon company! It provides you intimate companionship if you take medicines, and refuses to go till almost a week if you do not.
You feel dead tired as if somebody is snuffing the very breath out of you as you laboriously breathe through one stuffed nostril. With fingers whose tips are colder than any icy peak, you make yourself a hot soup. A warm cuppa, a soft rug, a book and some music (you are so down in doldrums that a silly serial would do, too!), and then the sick bed is literally a h(e)aven!
Pratima@Enjoy your bout of the common cold. You have nothing to lose except the mucus!
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