February 27, 2008

Seventy Percent Solution

I felt about 70% of normal this morning, so I went to work. Still sniffling, sneezing, and coughing. You don't think about it much when you don't have to do it, but it seems to take literally every muscle in your entire body to cough. That's not good for sleeping. Or for sleeping spouses. Or for spouses who want to be sleeping but can't because you're coughing.

Anyway, I was mentally alert when I woke up, and that was good enough for me. I got the biohazard treatment from pretty much everyone at work and a lot of people were very solicitous of my status: "How are you doing, TL?" I assume they were asking out of a mixture of compassion (as my sneezing and coughing must have been clearly audible) and wariness (because they sure don't want this crud). As I understand it, for about the last day you have significant symptoms, you're expelling only dead viruses (virii?) that won't be viable even if picked up by a new host, so you aren't contagious. But that may just be a myth and maybe I should have stayed home today, too, even though I was going kind of stir crazy here.

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