It began last Tuesday, if I remember, that strange feeling of congestion in my head and “junk” running down the back of my throat.
By Wednesday, that feeling had progressed into a severe cough, stopped up nose and a generally lousy feeling all over. I was coming down with the “whatever-it-is-that’s-going-around,” or as my doctor succinctly put it when I visited him, “so you’ve got the crud.”
“The crud” is the unscientific term for what I have, but it’s damned accurate — an unexplained feeling of fever when you don’t have any, head feeling like it could blow at any minute and a scratchy, irritating feeling in the throat aggravated by a cough. It wasn’t the flu. The doctor tested me for the flu and I flunked the test.
Oh, that cough. My daughter had been suffering from the same malady for about a week before I came down with it, and it was keeping her up at night.
Now it was my turn, and the illness kept me home from work for two days.
I could tell what was going to happen before the cough was anywhere close to starting. There was this feeling of irritation building in the upper chest (or was it lower throat) that generated power as it made its way up the line. Humorist Garrison Keillor described the feeling in a monologue on PBS’ “Prairie Home Companion” as “this turbulence.” That’s a pretty good description of my situation, and once the turbulence began, there was no way to make a socially polite cough. It came out as a roaring BARK that made people turn heads and my wife wonder if I would survive. At times I was sure I would see my tonsils landing on the floor.
To combat this phenomenon, my doctor prescribed an antibiotic and a high-potency cough elixir to suppress it and help me sleep. Fat chance.
During my seclusion, my favorite spot was my recliner, where during the day I succumbed to fatigue from the overnight coughing fits and the ingredients of the cough medication. It was there I stayed and slept and prepared for the coming night’s battle with the turbulence.
Being sick was a mixed blessing. I missed work for a couple of days and therefore got a break from the pressures of the job (I needed a rest anyway), but I also missed some of the best weather we’ve had in the area in several weeks. I missed the blue skies, the warm — for the season — temperatures, which soared into the 70s on Sunday and an opportunity to get out and maybe visit the National Military Park or go by and look at the Mississippi from the Visitor Center or Navy Circle after church. Such is the penalty for those who fall victim to the ravages of the cough and stuffy head.
After four days of suffering, I returned to work Monday, still coughing and still feeling lousy. I’m slowly improving, a tribute to chemistry, cough drops and periodic bowls of soup. I’m on the road to recovery, I think, but I keep wondering if a relapse is still in my future.
If that happens, however, I’ll call on an old Louisiana remedy — a big, steaming bowl of either hot, spicy gumbo or red beans and rice. It may not fully cure the problem, but it will clear my head, and make it just a little more enjoyable.
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John Surratt is a reporter and can be reached by email at john.surratt@vicksburgpost.com or by phone at 601-636-4545.