The Sniffles

I have a cold.

Apparently I’ve caught it from Debbie, which is hardly surprising, since we live together. Incubation period is two or three days, and she’s been sick for a week; sounds about right. Rhinitis is most contagious just after the prodrome stage, when one is sneezing and coughing, shedding virus like dandruff and generally feeling like hell.

I went web-surfing just to see if there was anything new in the noösphere re cures for the common cold. There is not, which is no surprise. Developing a vaccine for rhinovirus (the word always makes me imagine tiny little ungulates rampaging around in my bloodstream, goring and tossing corpuscles with ferocious abandon) isn’t exactly a high priority; the disease isn’t fatal in and of itself, or even terribly debilitating, and anyway there’s way too much money to be made from selling OTC remedies and various species of snake oil. Unless someone stumbles across one by accident, don’t look for a cure any time soon.

So the only thing left is symptomatic relief. Zinc gets a lot of good press, as does Echinacea, and the old standby Vitamin C. There’s some in the cabinet, somewhere. But before I do anything else, I’m going to have a nice therapeutic dose of chicken soup.