Change of Weather or Germ Warfare?
With the change of weather came a case of Sinusitis [1] and another ear infection [2]. For the past week it has been misery, and then some. First a minor case of post-nasal drip, and a runny nose. Then a headache. Then a completely stuffed nose, and loss of voice. Those who know me know it means I am really sick when I canít talk.
Half my business life is spent in front of the computer; the other half is on the phone. So the phone part was out, and I was so miserable (and so stuffed up) that I could barely sit in front of the computer. What a way to start the workweek.
Then came the cough, the stuffed head and chest, the general achiness, and this really bothersome, tender, painful feeling around the temple of my left ear.
I missed an important meeting on Tuesday, being too sick to drive in to make it, and with no voice, unable to conduct it over the phone. I managed, hoarsely, to whisper a few phone calls and get a few things done, and also to send out some e-mail. All this is business related ñ the personal stuff went by the wayside. Like updating this blog.
Wednesday I managed to drag myself to the doctor. He diagnosed the Sinusitis and the ear infection, agreed that gee, yeah, this is very uncomfortable and painful, too, and put me on four, count them, FOUR medications. Three pills: one for the Sinusitis & ear infection, one for the cough, one for the congestion. And ear drops, to work double-duty on the infection.
This combination of pills would seem to be working, as I have some voice back, can breath again moist of the time, at least via one nostril, as opposed to only through my mouth, and the headache went away. Still very stuffed, but now having a productive cough, blowing my nose like thereís no tomorrow, and still sorta achy all over.
And the medication makes me want to sleep, sleep, sleep. When I am awake, it sounds like a construction project is going on in my stomach. The doctor did warn me to eat before I took the pills, that on an empty stomach it would be brutal. Well, on a not-so-empty stomach (who can eat with these symptoms?) it isnít exactly ease and comfort, but not the dreaded ìgreen apple trotsî or runs he forewarned would occur if taken on an empty stomach.
And, adding insult to injury, one of the pill bottles has a zinger of a warning sticker on it. It says not to use aspirin when taking this drug. Oh, lucky me.
Now I do finally feel like I am on the road to recovery, but have not yet seen the sign for my exit. And he gave me dosage for FIFTEEN DAYS of this stuff. Apparently these symptoms are rampant throughout the region, and it takes along time to get rid of it, so the 15-day medication regime is supposed to knock it out, for good, lights out.
I sure hope so.
A friend out on the dreaded Island of Lawnge (so far out there he can see the oh-so chi-chi Hamptons from his road signs) suggests this is Germ Warfare. He had it (actually has it, but is at the tail end), and cannot understand how a healthy specimen such as he could come up with these symptoms. And there seems to be a bunch of it going around Suffolk County, he reports.
Another friend of mine, a health buff no less, whom I saw last Saturday, the last day I felt anything close to healthy, came down it. She got it on Friday when a headache decided to visit her, then she felt not-so-hot Saturday. She and another friend and I met for a drink Saturday night (heavy boozer that I am, I ordered hot tea and the waitress had to ask me to repeat it twice so she could make sure she got it right!) when she reported that the headache was controlled with constant aspirin, but gee, was she tired. She was full-blown sick when she awoke on Sunday. Sheís one of those people who never gets sick. Muscle aches, yeah, since she is so active and sporty and has a somewhat physically demanding job. But never colds or flu or such maladies, she loves to boast.
Well, I got it too, sometime before last Saturday. She got her blast of full symptoms Sunday morning. Apparently it had been festering in me before making a Sunday night-Monday morning debut.
Adding to the mystery is this: Susan didnít get it. Not at all. How can this be? I get this illness (or double-dose of illnesses), and she, with whom I spend more of my time than anyone else, doesnít get it? Why would Susan be immune, yet I get it?
Back to the L.I. guyís theory. Suddenly, all over the region in the outer boroughs and counties as well as the city, New Yorkers suddenly come down with this illness. Biological warfare [3], he says. Germ dissemination. Al Qaida or Sadam, [4] at it, using their devious ways to weaken us here in the financial capitol of the world. Could it be?
Well, at least Susan didnít get it. And voter turnout in NY wasnít so low as to indicate that the polling places were less busy due to scourges of sufferers of this illness. Shame on me, I was too sick to make it to my polling place. All the local area candidates I would have voted for managed to win despite my non-participation. The statewide ones I would have supported lost (with one exception, and that was by a hair!), but the margins were so big I donít feel like my inability to get out and vote really made much of a difference.
Susan was kind enough to go get me Jewish Penicillin [5]: Chicken Soup and Motzah Balls (yes, the end of my Atkins Diet regimen has come). She did this two times, actually, and both times got enough soup to last two days. Lucky me, she also got some goodies from the Jewish deli/appetizing store [6] (owned by a Chinese guy who used to be the chief lox-smith [7] at NYCís legendary [8] Zabarís [9]) But these delicacies are lost on my deadened senses. I can taste nothing, smell nothing (Susan pointed out that the cat box was wafting pungently), and only await the day when I can enjoy something that requires using one or more of these senses.
The Off Season
Yesterday was one of those days. You get the paper, turn to the Sports Section, and there was not one, single, solitary story about Baseball. How very sad. And what poor judgment this shows on the part of the editor of The New York Timeís Sports Section.
There was all sorts of Baseball news yesterday. The US All Stars touring Japan. Players announcing to opt for free agency [10]. All the machinations going on as the free agent free-for-all is about to begin, and just what will be going on at the upcoming General Managers Meeting. And no coverage of the story about beloved Yankee family member Luis Sojo!
Sojo, a bench player, team Spanish translator, peacekeeper and mentor to many players, retired after the 2001 Season. Even in retirement, the Yanks had asked him to come to Spring Training last year, on a just-in-case basis. He didnít make the team, but he remained in the Yankee family. This past year he managed the Yanksí minor league team in Norwich, CT, taking them to the Eastern League Championship, with almost no help from above, as the Yanks were about to sever their ties [11] with this team.
Sojo just told the Yanks that he wonít be available to manage next year, as he moves back to Venezuela and intends to open up his Baseball School. So he will scout for the Yanks in Venezuela, and get the Luis Sojo Baseball School off the ground. Why do I know this, and how is it that I have read about it, but that the supposed newspaper of record in the Big Apple doesnít even cover it?
Two reasons:
1. The Times has always had a mediocre Sports Section, although some of the writers are first class. And why the Times dropped Buster Olney as the Yanksí beat writer is beyond me. He was the finest Yanksí beat writer in years, and they apparently moved him elsewhere.
2. During the off season I read every baseball web site I can find. My interest in the great game is as keen in the off season as it is during Spring Training and the regular season.
Hereís [12] the whole story on Luis Sojo. From the best Sports Section to be found in one of the city's newspapers, The New York Daily News.
Maybe Susan and I will take a vacation to Venezuela [13], and go see Luis and his students in action!