A cold

This being the story of a recent cold. A cold which was unusual, at least for me, in that it was unpleasant for a short while early on, but which then dragged on for the full nine days that BH allows for a cold, her recipe being three days coming, three days here and three days going. While I have found, since retiring, that colds, or cold like events, are often overnight affairs: go to bed feeling a bit unwell, unwell rather than rough, but then wake up the following morning more or less OK.

So on Day 1 we had the street party. 

On Day 2 woke up with a bit of a sore throat, which passed off fast enough. Went for a spin around Jubilee Way, which takes about an hour and a half, during which I felt a bit odd, sometimes a bit cold without a jacket - but suspecting that I would have been a bit hot with it. Temperature control gone awry.

Sore throat came back on during the day. Not too clever by the evening. Disturbed sleep with dreams. Running a bit hot. Thought about paracetamol for the throat but didn't.

Emerged on Day 3 at around 06:00 feeling pretty bad, worse than a usual cold. Throat sore with some painful coughing. But the odd thing was that this acute phase passed off quite quickly, in an hour or so. After which I felt much better, but rather weak. Cancelled or postponed various engagements.

Eating now OK, so took a fried egg sandwich on white for once in a while. Lemon and honey to drink. But just sat around, not doing anything much. A little reading. Dozing. Substantial lunch involving cold pork. More sitting around and snoozing. Eventually found a thermometer that worked (from Zeal's of reference 2) and recorded 101°F, so up but not that bad. BH talk of paracetamol, but I didn't.

Maybe a taking heed of having read somewhere that fever was the body's way of killing off bugs. So not obviously a good thing to take the fever down in the absence of bug killers. A little knowledge is dangerous?

By the evening a bit weak and feeble. But the drain clearing part of the business was starting, usually a good sign, if a touch messy.

Another disturbed, hot and sweaty night. Up around 07:00 on Day 4. Pottered about, still not doing much. Just to be on the safe side, took a COVID test, which I passed. In the evening discovered some old BBC Maigret on some obscure Freeview channel (82). Probably the episode noticed at reference 1.

Up around 05:00 on Day 5. A bit heady, but more or less OK.

Another disturbed night, eventually up around 07:00 on Day 6. Sleep and digestion probably disturbed by the lack of any exercise, any physical activity.

Still a bit heady when I woke up on Day 7. Drain clearance continues. Plenty of handkerchiefs in the washing basket. Nose starting to get a bit sore. Had an outing on the bicycle, the first time since it all kicked off. Oddly, cycling seemed a lot easier than walking. But that might have been the heat, with one getting better ventilation on a cycle.

And so it all wound down over the next two or three days, declaring the all-clear on Day 10. More or less back to normal - having following the timeline turned up by Bing and included above pretty well. But no sinus, no muscle pains and not much coughing.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/06/death-of-butcher.html.

Reference 2: https://www.zeal.co.uk/zeal/thermometers.html. They still exist! And we have one of their jam thermometers from the days when BH's parents were still making jam.

Reference 3: https://www.imdb.com/list/ls516644888/. More on Maigret.