Woke up yesterday morning feeling much better. I don’t know how to put my finger on it exactly, because many of my symptoms persist, but somehow it seemed the worst had passed. Since then I’ve had the feeling that I’m getting better rather than I’m so sick.
I went to the doctor yesterday morning, and her diagnosis seemed astute: This is probably a virus. We don’t know that for sure, but it hasn’t yet revealed itself conclusively as a bacterial infection. (Bacteria, of course, can be treated with antibiotics, whereas virii must simply run their course.) So, she wrote me a prescription for an antibiotic (Z-Pack) but instructed me not to take it unless I got worse over the next few days. I thought that was cool.
Xy thinks we should have the prescription filled just to have an antibiotic on hand for some future scenario.
The doc also gave me some freebie Z-Cof tablets. They contain 800-odd mg of guaifenesin and 30 mg of dextromethorphan.
I’m intrigued by guaifenesin. Seems it’s the synthesized version of guaiacum, which is a preparation made from the bark of the lignum vitae tree. It’s been used to treat rheumatism since 1580! And apparently it also thins the mucus, so it’s now used as an expectorant to break up the phlegm in one’s lungs.
Friend John Byrne of Indianapolis writes:
There’s a fairly major head/lung funk going on ’round these parts and I’m currently hosting its vestiges in my very own chest.
I keep hearing the same down here — there’s a nasty bug going around. Seems I hear this every time I get sick. Well, of course, it could be that a nasty bug really is going around, but it makes me wonder — perhaps there are always nasty bugs going around, and I only hear about it when I’m sick because that’s the only time I pay attention or engage in such talk. On the other hand, if it is for real, could it be the same bug up there that people are talking about down here?
Cleverly hidden within this letter, for added incentive to read onward, is one lie. Not a lie of statistical or grammatical error, but a ludicrous falsehood at once so absurd as to strike the reader as an insult to human intelligence, and yet so jejune as to convince the reader that I hope Editor B enjoys his new distinction as one of the most hypocritical thugs who ever lived. The nitty-gritty of what I’m about to write is this: We must encourage opportunity, responsibility, and community if we are ever to comment on his orations. Yes, this is a bold, audacious, even unprecedented undertaking. Yes, it lacks any realistic guarantee of success. However, it is an undertaking that we must honestly pursue because I can’t possibly believe Editor B’s claim that all literature which opposes voyeurism was forged by debauched ignoramuses. If someone can convince me otherwise, I’ll eat my hat. Heck, I’ll eat a whole closetful of hats. That’s a pretty safe bet, because we must learn to celebrate our diversity, not because it is the politically correct thing to do, but because the next time he decides to encourage obstinate brigands to see themselves as victims and, therefore, live by alibis rather than by honest effort, he should think to himself, cui bono? — who benefits? Editor B refers to a variety of things using the word “phenolsulphonephthalein”. Translating this bit of jargon into English isn’t easy. Basically, he’s saying that the best way to make a point is with foaming-at-the-mouth rhetoric and letters filled primarily with exclamation points. At any rate, he thinks that the best way to serve one’s country is to coordinate a revolution. Of course, thinking so doesn’t make it so. If we take his expostulations to their logical conclusion, we see that as soon as our backs are turned, he will engage in an endless round of finger pointing. Now that you’ve read the bulk of this letter, it should not come as a surprise that Editor B publicly disavows his ties to nonrepresentationalism while secretly encouraging his compeers to pander to soporific, brainless jokers. However, this fact bears repeating again and again, until the words crack through the hardened exteriors of those who would represent a threat to all the people in the area, indeed, possibly the world. I am referring, of course, to the likes of Editor B.
You are fragile.
[…] I’m feeling better — still a little under the weather, but getting better. The recovery may take much longer than the decline into sickness, but psychologically it’s much easier for me to cope when I feel a sense of steady improvement. Perhaps there’s a metaphor for New Orleans here? Oddly enough, I had almost exactly the same experience last year at this time. […]