Terrible Week to Have a Cold

There's never a good time to catch a cold and have to deal with it. But this was definitely not a good week.

I've heard it said that a cold generally lasts a week if you do nothing, but if you do the rest and fluids and take all the drugs to relieve your symptoms it takes seven days. Do the math. And this was definitely not a good week.

Did I mention this was not a good week to have a cold? Well, it wasn't.

First of all, I had just gotten over bronchitis (a bacterial infection) a week before. But this was a virus. Probably the same one my wife was hosting while my anti-bacterial meds were whipping my last bout of bronchitis. I thought I was home free as far as being able to sing Christmas Eve. The prickly feeling in the back of my throat a week ago said otherwise.

I immediately attacked with some Zicam which is supposed to lessen the severity and perhaps shorten the duration of your cold. Well, my symptoms were less severe. However, I still had a bit of trouble with my vocal cords after last Sunday. By Tuesday I was pretty hoarse (although I didn't quite sound like Barry White as I have in the past).

Thankfully, I had the bulk of my Christmas shopping done, so the stress of holiday shopping was not a factor. I just had some gift certificates and a CD to buy, and that was a piece of cake.

Most of the stress came from work. We had a rather high volume come in and only half of our usual crew to get it done. We had to be creative to get it all done, and didn't quite finish (but we did quite well anyway).

Thursday night's rehearsal found me with not much workable singing voice and not much help to the rest of the tenor section. But it was a rehearsal I couldn't very well skip as Christmas Eve was the next night, and our music needed some serious work. At least I could listen. Also, as choir chaplain, I had a very inspirational devotion to share with the choir.

Ah, Christmas Eve day. I was starting to feel almost human. Since Fridays are half-days for me, I was able to come home for a short nap. All that was really left for Christmas was to wrap presents, take shower, and head out to the church.

I still wasn't in full voice when the evening began. Singing at the 7:00 service was a little challenging, but it went okay. By 9:00, I actually felt that my voice was stronger. We had done some switching around in the tenor section and I sang next to one of the stronger voices (at his request!). It was a little better.

It was nice not having to sing the 11:00 service this year. At least I could get home sooner and get to bed sooner.

Then I get home and there's a message from my wife S. As planned, she was spending the night at our daughter's/grandson's apartment so she could get a head start on breakfast and we'd open presents in plenty of time. But what wasn't planned was that when she took her bedtime insulin, she injected the wrong insulin, essentially overdosing on the long-term insulin. The doctor told her not to go to sleep for another four hours and to eat all the sugar she could get her hands on. It worked - she's fine now.

I'm feeling much better today. Who knows? Perhaps I'll have a pretty decent singing voice tomorrow! Anyway, terrible week to have a cold.