I am travelling this week, and sick. It seems I brought everything I needed for this trip except my immune system. Now, I don’t even remember where I might have left it.
Getting the kind of colds I get, the rough, knock you down kind, away from home is, if such a thing is possible, even more miserable than catching one at home. At least at home, I can be miserable in familiar surroundings.
What happens is that I don’t sleep. The first nights of any trip are restless. I am in strange bed and my body, no matter how tired I am, will not relax. Instead, my body stays awake and worries-about germs, about how the air quality is not right for comfortable sleeping. Mostly though, my body stays awake worrying about not sleeping. I think my body may need some counseling.
I am putting my hope in zinc. I have been sucking those little lozenges, the ones with just barely enough cherry flavoring to cover up the fact you are eating metal. They’re supposed to help you recover more quickly. The family member who gave them to me is a doctor.
“Is there any medical evidence, ” I asked,” to suggest these really work?”
“No,” she said. “But my mother swears by them.”
Well, at this point that’s good enough for me.
