This is the 8th day of a cold I suspected was sourced somewhere in Ontario and gifted to me by Daughter who returned from there.
I was doing fine with it, relieved it hadn't turned into a bronchial nightmare like times past. I had poor lungs as a child, double pneumonia and pleurisy by the age of 10 and heat treatments in the hospital for about a year afterwards. I can still smell that machine, odd that, and I can't find any information on it on a Google search. It was a night out for my mother and me. Every Wednesday night. And we would walk from the hospital to a distant bus-stop afterwards as the fare was cheaper. Today, I can't imagine my father coping alone with the children at home, the youngest about a year old.
It's funny how one can think of something far off in the past and it opens up a floodgate of memories. My mother would always buy me a chocolate bar afterwards - I would take forever to choose it in the newsagent's across from the hospital - for being a "good girl" and lying so still on my stomach under the lamps. I imagine my lungs were being dried. I must have been a wheezy child but I have no recollection of that.
And here I am today, 8 days into this nasty bug and feeling worse than the last 7 days. I slept most of the day, coughed and hacked so much I got a rare headache and yes, I'm cranky. I have too much to do to be this sidetracked by my body.
What was that again? Oh yeah, it's telling me to slow down.
Aye, aye, ma'am.
Oh yes,
ReplyDeletethe floodgate of memories have been wide open today.
So many memories surfaced and many I thought had been put to rest.
Slow down, yes - we are both
hearing it - loud and clear.
Get well wishes and quick ones I send and if you were near
I would share my chicken soup with you...
Thanks for the offer of chicken soup dear OWJ!
ReplyDeleteI am sure it would cure what ails me as my granny would say!
I love some of the memories, those Wednesday nights with just my mum are precious. I'm sure it was a night out for her away from the house :)
XO
WWW
Sending tea and a blanket your way!
ReplyDeleteThanks Kate - blankies are the best and the dog at my feet!
ReplyDeleteXO
WWW
Well, let's think about pneumonia, and the issues. Fever? If any, you need to be seen. The 'heat machine' you remember from ago was back when they thought that increased temp would stimulate mucous production, since discredited.
ReplyDeleteI suggest you get seen for the symptoms, and probable antibiotic rx.
Best,
Mike
Heat treatment for pneumonia and pleurisy? I don't remember anything like that from when I was a kid. I'm not surprised it's been discredited.
ReplyDeleteAll you can do with bugs is eat plenty of nutritious food and wait for them to go away. As you say, very annoying when you feel like shit but you've got a dozen things to do.
Rest and heal!
ReplyDeleteSFM:
ReplyDeleteNo fever and today I'm feeling a whole world better and not hacking as much. I'm monitoring the situation though. A major killer of us elders is pneumonia.
XO
WWW
Nick:
ReplyDeleteAnd a large kind of operating room in the hospital with these machines. And an odd odour to them, sharp, metallic, unique.
Yes, I'm paying attention to ingestion :)
XO
WWW
Thanks dear SAW :)
ReplyDeleteXO
WWW
Hope today you are feeling better - it's hard to slow down when there are things to do!
ReplyDeleteI've been opening those floodgates of memory myself lately - as long as I can get back to my present serenity, I don't mind the backwards jaunts.
Pauline:
ReplyDeleteThe more we age the more vivid the memories of times back then.
I love your idea of the cousins' recollections based on old photographs :)
XO
WWW
I wish you back to tip top condition soon so's you can get cracking again.
ReplyDeleteI had diphtheria as a child with steam kettle under blankets for treatment. The sight of a bright red hospital blanket brings those memories back.
Thinking of you, glad you hear you feels worlds better and have no fever, and I'll continue to check in. We're not spring chickens anymore, are we. But we can live to be winter chickens, yes?
ReplyDeletesending love!
Oh Pamela you were so fortunate to survive diphtheria, I think you're the first I've heard of.
ReplyDeleteI hope there were no lasting effects?
XO
WWW
Hah! Winter chickens! I do love that.
ReplyDeleteYes, sign me up :)
XO
WWW
I hope the cold has run its course WWW.It usually lasts about a week treated or not.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping today sees me on the upswing, GFB. I was able to go out and about for a while :) thank you!
ReplyDeleteXO
WWW
Is there anything more frustrating than a head cold? Yes, of course there is, but only if you've not got one. Take plenty of walks in the fresh Newfoundland air followed by a hot toddy by that stove of yours, and some early nights (preferably with another hot toddy before bed!) and pamper yourself. Hopefully, it'll be gone in a week and you can get on with your life.
ReplyDeleteI am glad to read you're feeling better. My first read of this left me unsettled, and one evening I realized why ~ reminds me of trips to the doctor for my next youngest brother and me where salt water was run through our sinuses when we had serious sinus infections. Unpleasant. We lived in close quarters at the time and my dad was a smoker, which I know now was a contributing factor. The good news is that the treatment worked and is now common practice with the "netti pot." Still unpleasant and still works.
ReplyDeleteHope you are feeling better now, WWW. Was it an iron lung that you were placed in?
ReplyDeleteI hope that you have got over it.
ReplyDelete