It must have been about 15 years ago when I first began getting the hang of it.
Every summer on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, when the heat, humidity, and flowering corn tassles combined to make a pungent killer haze that hung low over the land, I would get sick as a dog. “Allergy headaches,” I called them, horrible back-of-the-eye pounding, nausea inducing episodes that knocked me into bed. For some reason, one year at the onset of this annual torture I happened to read an article about migraine headaches. I knew nothing about migraines (and still don’t), but the description certainly matched my symptoms. This particular article also discussed a theory that migraines were induced by stress, even that the sufferers might be doing this to themselves in some way. Really? I had an “aha!” moment and decided to turn it off. Don’t ask me how I did it, but it worked, and I never had another “allergy headache” again.
About 10 years ago I did the same thing with colds and flu. Every year I would have two or three long bouts with one kind of horrible virus or another, and the routine was getting old. I started reading about alternative healing practices and the mind-body connection. Eventually I came to believe that illnesses were something we somehow need or unconsciously draw toward ourselves. Just believing that one is in danger of “catching” the germs from someone else can do it, too, I realized. Not that the method of transmission doesn’t exist, but that one is vulnerable. I call it believing in the disease instead of believing in your body. Whatever. From whenever the moment was, I simply stopped getting colds. This isn’t a joke. It was like flipping a switch in my head and deciding to be healthy. I just never got sick anymore after that. Oh, I would have the occasional scratchy throat after too many nights with too little sleep, but a dose of vitamin C and a nap would usually put that to rest.
And then came the New Mexico winter of 2006-2007: below or near-zero temperatures night after night, snow upon snow upon snow, cold like I’d never experienced. I even walked out on the ice barefoot to pick up firewood. “It’s the cold weather equivalent of walking on hot coals,” I boasted to a friend. In truth, the cold was like another dimension. When the wind wasn’t blowing, I just didn’t feel it. I would walk over to my wife’s studio at 1:00 in the morning to build up the fire for the resident cat in sandals and a vest. It couldn’t hurt for just a short time, i figured, and the incongruity was stimulating. I was getting off on the danger, if there was any.
You know where this is going. That’s right. Yesterday, for the first time in over 10 years, I became officially, horribly SICK! I’m still mostly lying down, but the fever is diminished, and I can actually type. I don’t know what it is and I don’t care. Last night I honestly thought I was ready to die. No figure of speech, either. I’m about 40 percent better now than 24 hours ago, and my spirit is back. But man…I can’t believe this used to happen to me year after year.
So where did this come from? The only thing I can figure is that I needed a warning or come-uppance. Those 30 pounds I keep swearing I’ll lose someday, my reckless disregard for dietary imbalances, idiot trips like walking barefoot in the snow…
There’s another snowstorm bearing down on us. Maybe 18 inches, the weather report says. My wife piled up firewood outside the front door where we can find it. Next time I go out to get some, I’m putting on a jacket, gloves, and a big fur hat!
(Shoes, too.)
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There’s a particularly nasty nanovirus that’s going around the country – it started several years ago on cruise ships, and this year has reached epidemic proportions. I’ve had it twice in the last few months. It mutates so quickly you can actually catch it again.
Pepto bismol and Gerolsteiner water works wonders on it.
If it’s the cold you’ve got, go for the Vitamin C, and maybe some E and A. And zinc. I’ve been fighting this one I’ve got for a couple weeks now and it’s nasty, too.
And like you, I’m rarely sick, but this last year I had a bout with just-developing colon cancer (fortunately caught extremely early) that has worn down my immune system.
I’m NEVER sick. [ahem} Until a few days ago, har. This thing hit like a runaway locomotive. For 36 hours I wished I were dead. I’d say I’m at 85 percent of normal at present. My treatment method is to go horizontal and drink a lot of water and tea. Sleep all day and all night if I can.
Wouldn’t know about colon cancer. Glad you’re OK. We don’t have any insurance, can’t possibly check for such things. America the Medieval, man. We got sharper knives, is all. Only the surface is changed.