Sympathy and SARS
I haven't posted here for a while because I've been sick. Not seriously ill, just miserably so. I hate those blogs in which the author almost daily writes of how terrible they feel, listing symptoms and complaints. They whine. It's their blog and the beauty of it all is that nobody paid to get in and no one has to read it. Great, huh?
My illness has been more of the two boxes of tissue a day sort. My husband is sympathetic and sweet, but it always ends with a pat on the head and "You'll be better tomorrow." Real message: "I have no clean underwear." I'm drifting along thinking it is my annual "allergy/sinus infection/maybe it's a tooth" thing, when I'm diagnosed with SARS. Yup. See, the main person I whine to is my mother. It's sooo good. "Oh, you poor baby" and "bless your heart." I can smell Vicks just hearing the words over the phone. I'm feeling all warm and fuzzy and mentholated and loved when it hits, "You don't think it could be SARS, do you?" Huh? She proceeds to explain to me how some of my symptoms match those of SARS victims and there are many unreported cases in Texas and how the Dr. should test for it. Fuzzy and groggy and sniffly as I am, I almost start to fall for it, imagining my family locked up someplace, losing jobs, failing at school, quarantined and shunned as I lay dying. WHOA!
My mother is an intelligent person, but the sources of her information include CNN, Oprah, Good Housekeeping and somebody she talked with in line at Walmart. Retired people seem to have networks of information unavailable to the rest of us. How do I know? Yesterday, Mom's diagnosis was confirmed by a second opinion. My mother-in-law's.
So.. Recovering from SARS as I am, I should be able to once more post regularly. At least until July or so, when I'll likely be maternally diagnosed with the West Nile Virus.