I don’t get sick much but when I do I crash.

Last week (Tuesday) I started to feel a bit of sore throat coming on. By that evening I felt like I had been eating barbed wire and washing it down with broken glass. By Wednesday morning the sore throat was gone but my sinuses were stuffed up and my head felt it was attached to my body by a string. I sneezed and wheezed all day. I was thinking to myself, so this is what it feels like to be dying.

Not being able to breathe is pretty serious so I moseyed on over to Walgreens to see if I could get anything that would fix me up fast. Good news was that the pharmacist on duty was my buddy and fellow Safety Harborite, Jay. I stood back and told him how I was pretty sure my head was getting ready to explode. He told me try not to let that happen in the store (clean up, Pharmacy aisle!), but Sudafed should do the trick.

After checking to make sure it didn’t interact with any of my other meds, he pulled box from behind the counter. I had to show I.D. sign an affidavit and promise I wasn’t using them to start a meth lab. He told me to take two and don’t take any more until the morning if I needed it. Wow, what a relief! Five minutes after I took the first two I was getting air - it’s a miracle, it’s miracle, I can breathe! I was going to get good night’s sleep with a shot of Delsum cough syrup I hit the sack and slept like  a baby. Only I didn’t wake up with a diaper full of pee and poop. It has taken a few days - the cough seems to be hanging on - but I can feel it drying up. I am almost back to my joyful fun self.

It was nice to get an e-mail from Patch Editor Jeff Rosenfield asking if I was OK, saying he had missed my witty comments and hadn’t seen me around town. I missed the tree lighting, the Museum opening and giant snow slide. Just my luck to be pooped out when the good stuff is happening.

But I needed to recover. At my tender age I got to be careful. We all know what happened to Jim Henson (the Muppet guy) - he thought he had the flu, turned out to be Group A streptococcus bacteria. By the time he was taken to the hospital it was sadly too late.

Just to be sure I get rid of this completely this week, I am going to whip up a batch of mother Saltzman’s chicken soup. Lots of garlic, carrots, herbs and spices. It should put the zip back in my step.

Thanks again for missing me, Jeff. But as I always say, “you ain’t going to get rid of me that easy. I’ll be back!!"