“I’ve got a little bit of a cough,” I have heard that before. Someone says, “I’ve got a little bit of a cough,” and then they proceed to sneeze, cough, and drip all over you.
When I was young, I used to think, “It’s a little bit of a cough, I can tough it out.” It never occurred to me that while I was being tough and brave and going to work, that I was also exposing all the people who had to come into contact with my “little bit of a cough,” and would then be infected.
Now, it’s happening to me in the opposite case. “I’ve got a little bit of a cough, but I really want to have a practice.” More than one student told me that this week, and I went ahead and let them practice…and cough…and sneeze…all over! Now, I’ve got the disease and it’s more than a little cough, I can tell you!
I began to get the runny eyes and nose, the scratchy throat and the congestion within hours of ending the practice with ill performers. I have spent my weekend sleeping, coughing, and then sleeping some more. I went out into the beautiful weather once but it was too much for my light-headed brain, so my entire walk was a stride out the door and a U-turn right back inside. So much for enjoying the great outdoors when you have a little bit of a cough.
I sent my husband to his mother’s for the day on the worst day of my symptoms. I figured he would enjoy her company and her cooking and he wouldn’t be in danger of getting my “little bit of a cough” from all the germs I might drip all over the phone, sinks, toilet, etc.
The question now is, how much of a “little cough” should I have before I don’t go to school and disease all over my students? I always agonize over this. As I already said, I used to just tough it through, but I’m not so quick to take my germs to work anymore. So I agonize: how sick is too sick to be exposed to other people?
I’ve seen all the commercials about pills you can take that will make it so that you don’t look like you have a cold or you don’t feel like you have the flu, but I wonder if those are a good idea. Won’t it take longer to recover if you just keep powering through, hyped up on some symptom-covering drugs?
I’m sure I’ll figure it out, but maybe not until the over-the-counter medication wears off. But for now, I’m going to go to bed and hope that tomorrow morning will mean I’m ready to go to work. However, if I wake up and I’ve been dreaming about meeting and falling in love with a deer and going off to live happily together in the woods…I’ll know that I still have some recovery left to do and my “little bit of a cough is not yet done!”
Have a healthy week everyone and I hope I haven’t breathed too many germs on you!
© Jackie Wells-Fauth and Drops In the Well, 2016. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Jackie Wells-Fauth and Drops In The Well with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
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