Cold and Flu, Cold and Flu

When I experienced my allergies last April, when my face swelled up like a over-ripened plum, I went through a bunch of tests to figure out what it was. Mainly it felt like I figured out what is wasn't -- no food allergies, no pet allergies, we ruled out dust and pollen and even some weird heavy metals. Finally, we narrowed it down to three things, none of which I can spell but are found in the rubber of my Jockey underwear, the conditioner with which I condition my hair, and, of all things, vitamin B12.

I'll admit, I was addicted to the Airborne supplement I put in my water bottle every day and even to the Emergen-C packet I sometimes slipped in my morning juice. Ann always told me to back off, but it tasted good and I thought, "What harm can vitamin C do?"

Well, it wasn't the vitamin C that got to me, it was the Vitamin B12 in its mega-doses that eventually did me in. So I went off the supplements cold turkey and now there are very few vitamins I can take that don't have some form of B12 or B Complex in them.

The end result? I got walloped by a cold bug this past week and I mean walloped. Coughing, sneezing, runny nose, weepy eyes, aches, pains the whole snot-ball of wax. Ann got the cold first and I thought, three days after her "outbreak" I'd avoided catching it. But then WHAM! Like someone injected the virus straight into my bloodstream (okay, I know it wasn't a virus, but that's what it felt like).

Today Ann made me lay on the couch and do NOTHING. This is hard for me, this doing nothing, but I obliged her and eventually fell fast asleep breathing heavy through my mouth. After hours and hours of doing it, I'm feeling remarkably better, but still get short of breath if I walk too long with the dogs or haul laundry up the stairs.

I miss my B12. I miss my Airborne and my Emergen-C. Now I feel like those actors on the Cold and Flu season commercials and instead of healthy vitamins to ward off the bugs, I'm popping DayQuil and Sudafed and cough syrup.

It's not fair, I hear myself whine. Just like my 5th graders who most likely exposed me to the germs in the first place.

It's just not fair.

Excuse me while I go blow my nose.