I am finally feeling a lot better. A month-long cold is no fun. I have heard that many people have suffered with such long illnesses. What is happening these days? Stronger viruses? Weakened immunities?
On top of having a long cold, I have had a month-long anxiety. What happened was, my annual physical exam occurred just as my cold was starting. My physician, not knowing that I had a cold coming on, ordered a non-specific blood test called C-reactive protein (CRP). A couple days later, the doctor called me to say that my results on that test were very high. He ordered an antibiotic, which I took for one month; I stopped taking it this morning. My anxiety occurred when I Googled the C-reactive protein test. It said that high scores on the test were related to inflammation, which could be related to various nefarious diseases such as cancer, and the like. Yikes!
As long as my CRP score goes down on my next blood test, I will be fine. If, God-forbid, it does not go down, I will likely undergo many tests to determine why the score is high. Yuk!
Have I become more philosophical about dying in light of this anxious situation? Somewhat. Is that a good thing? Who knows? I really much prefer to live a long life — something like that of my mom, at 94 now.
But not to worry. We all have to go sometime. Another expression of comfort: “Life is a terminal disease.” Last week my wife mentioned that our faith teaches us that we should live each day as if it were our last. Gulp!
I feel stronger, and more like myself, now that I have stopped taking the antibiotic. I heard that that drug can make you feel rather weak. I want to be positive. Most likely my CRP score will be normal when I retake my blood test — likely I will wait until I feel 100 percent better. Right now I feel 90 percent better. It’s easy being weak when you haven’t really exercised in a month. Yesterday, I went in my pool for about 10 minutes of moving around slowly. A few minutes ago, I returned to the heated pool for 20 minutes of moving around and some mild breaststroke. My muscle tone is returning slowly. It feels good.
Is it a coincidence that I hooked up my new pool heater just in time to heal?
Mr. Ebsen may be contacted at Robertebsen@hotmail.com
