Miserable cold wet days, and the long dark nights are enough to make anyone feel down in the dumps, but combine them with the dreaded colds and flu that delight in attacking us when we are at our most vulnerable does nothing at all to brighten up our lives. Sniffing, sneezing and coughing are as much a part of our daily lives as getting out of bed each morning.
You leave for work wrapped up warmly and feeling reasonably healthy, a sudden glimpse of the sun cheers you up no end and the day ahead doesn’t look too bad.
As lunchtime approaches a slight burning or tingling sensation at the back of your throat alerts you to the fact that things are not as they should be. Those dreaded germs have decided that you make a good candidate and worthy of their attentions.
As the day progresses your head feels as though tiny hammers are tapping away relentlessly and your eyes feel heavy, work is now furthermost from your mind and the fingers on the clock perched on your desk seem to have stopped moving.
The journey home in the tube is a nightmare, but wow those pesky little critters are overjoyed, so many more candidates just waiting for their attentions. Home at last and food is the last thing on your mind, a hot drink, a couple of tablets and bed in that order.
A mere cold can be coped with and although you feel miserable as you sniffle all the way to work its not likely you will get any sympathy from your workmates and certainly not from your boss, in fact he will expect a full days work no matter how you feel.
Flu is a different matter, as it progresses the aches and pains in your body will start and the tiny hammers in your head will have grown into jack hammers. Bed is the only place to be, hopefully with the loving attentions of a partner to provide the tablets and cool drinks that are necessary.
Although you feel as if you are at deaths door a doctor is not the answer, they can do no more than what your partner is already doing, a prescription for pain killers and that’s it.
There is no magic cure you just have wait for those pesky critters to decide that you are of no more interest and wait until they turn their attentions to some other poor person. If you are one of those foolish people that believe you can beat the critters and that your normal daily life is not to be interrupted beware, what started out as flu can easily turn into pneumonia.
If your flu progresses normally after a few days you should start to feel better, but if this doesn’t happen and symptoms worsen or sickness occurs then a doctor will be needed, hopefully this won’t happen and you will soon be on the road to recovery.
