Marsha's moving out

Yep, she's a virus, just a virus, a real bitch of a virus, but today my doctor caught her gathering boxes to pack stuff in. I'm on sick-leave till Friday, and that should do it.

I'm looking forward to getting well again. I always say that when I get sick: Oh, boy, am I going to be happy and grateful when I get well! Truth is, I have plenty to be grateful for right now. I have a wonderfully well-functioning immune defense system. It has done everything right from the first moment Marsha moved in.

It was recently reported by Science Magazine (and in Norwegian) that it is important to encourage a fever (not to the point of complications from fever, though), because it's the fever that kick-starts a number of other immune defense responses. Fever makes you lethargic and tired thus encouraging you to rest and not tax your system. The heat from the fever creates some changes that trigger and aide white blood cells.

I can't remember if it's feed a fever, starve a cold or vice-versa, but judging by my recent experience, it's starve both. I've hardly eaten, but I have been drinking a lot of fluids, and been very fond of soup. For the stupid cough that not even a prescription cough medicine with morphine could stop, I tried honey (dissolved in warm water or tea). Works just as well as that nasty stuff you have to measure carefully and take only 4 times a day. The best expectorant (phlegm-thinner) is water. Knowing stuff like aspirin and paracetamol would not only ease the pain of my sore throat, but also lower the fever, I took those things only at night so I could get some sleep. In the daytime, I drank warm liquids or sucked lozenges.

So first gradually getting worse, then gradually getting better, my body, with what seems like the most counter-productive response to an infection ever (coughing so I don't get any sleep, for example), has nevertheless successfully managed to serve Marsha the virus her eviction notice.

Good health is not just about being well. Good health is also about successfully fighting illness. Thank you, body, for being so good at what you do.