Dreams From Common Cold

Right on Saturday both my boyfriend and my brother caught a cold. Nothing serious, just your regular, common, annoying cold. Head hurts, limbs hurt, feel like crap, throat hurts, get fever, runny nose... you know, the usual drill. It doesn't matter then what can you get at your local pharmacy, or the different home remedies you can prepare - from the strong lemonade, and the ginger syrup to the warm milk with honey and oregano (this one for sure throat, actually), nothing helps you get over the cold better than staying in bed, under the covers and sweating the sickness out. My brother was staying at my aunt's place, quite all on his own, though he was regularly looked after by my aunt, which eased a bit my share of worries, and could concentrate on pampering my boyfriend back to health. Today I already woke up with a sore throat. Dammit.

I'm currently not working, but I still couldn't yet afford to stay in bed all day. I had errands to run, places to go, lunch to fix, among other things. Apparently, had also a boyfriend to torture --- I guess that after pampering him so much and him thinking he was now above washing dishes, I felt like picking on him and maybe picked on him too much. No hard feelings, though!

However, this got me thinking on the times when I was in Costa Rica and though I had to go and work, I set a weekend for "cure", and how good that was. Yes, good. Cold is a nasty sickness, but it's not as terrible - in my opinion and after many, many cases of cold survived - as could be other sicknesses. Then basically only the first day or first few days is terrible, then the rest is simply annoying while your nose runs and you can't breath properly. However, that first day or those first days, if you have the chance to stay in bed, it can be quite nice.

Clad in your pajamas or any really comfy clothes, you stay in bed, but arrange your whole world around it. I always had my trusty and beloved netbook with me (then again, I ALWAYS have my beloved netbook with me), and piled up on the nightstand a "care basket" for myself full of my favorite candies, snacks, drinks and plenty of remedies - both home cold remedies and pharmacy remedies.  It was uncomfortable as you sweated like a pig, but at the same time it felt nice to have a "valid excuse" to stay all day in bed watching TV, sleeping, surfing the net and reading books and magazines. Hell, you already feel like crap, so why can't you just make something to feel better?

In my experience the toughest part of the cold can be drastically reduced if you can cure yourself with staying in bed for a day. If impossible, if you catch the cold at the begining of your workweek, at least try to get into bed as soon as possible, take a hot bath, rub yourself with selfheating gels and creams, wear warm pajamas and pull the cover up under your chin. Give yourself a break, pull out all of those fashion magazines, or National Geographic magazines you meant to read but never got around to. Pick that amazing, thick book from the shelve and take it with you.

I may just do that tomorrow, declare myself in need of cure (specially since we are going to Vienna on Thursday), and stay in bed all day long, surround myself with my many thick magazines and my books and kindle, and let myself be pampered. Stay in bed, stay warm and be happy while I get to be healthy again. Only on question in left regarding this: if we are willing to let ourselves be happy, relax and enjoy a day or two of doing absolutely nothing, while being sick, why can't we allow ourselves to enjoy the same when we are healthy? It might be a social thing, we might be actually under the influence of many generations of pressure telling us that doing nothing is not decent (though strangely doing nothing at works seems to be perfectly fine for a large part of the working population), and so the sole idea of enjoying ourself while not suffering for the rest of the world is nearly obscene to us. So break away from it, and the next time you get a cold, take the opportunity to lounge a little at home, try it out, dare to feel good while your sickness is rested away from you. Dare to arrange things to your comfort, TV at bed, all your favorites, and everything at hands reach. Try it out and then consider trying it out also on a day you are healthy.

For now, I'm leaving. I have a hot drink to fix for myself, a bed to pull out and a day of comfort to arrange.