The Man Cold

Every day you hear about disease epidemics breaking out or new strands of deadly diseases being discovered somewhere in the world. Why is is that people continually fail to accept the man cold as one of the worst illnesses in history?

It's not that I think the man cold carries the worst symptoms or even is the most deadly. There are plenty of diseases that are far more deadly. It's more the complete lack of respect that a man cold carries. We men are a proud race and wouldn't let something trivial hold us back to the state where we are rendered completely useless and we certainly wouldn't be prepared to admit it if something pretty small had incapacitated us.

This is what it does though.

Tuesday, about midday, I seem to remember posting saying I was feeling a little bit odd. Little did I know this was clearly the incubating period of the Man Cold. I have to admit that going to the football in the evening and cheering four goals probably didn't help matters but by Tuesday night, I had no doubt in my mind that I would at least be unwell on Wednesday.

I wake up Wednesday morning and I start to wonder whether I got the order wrong when I lay down and slept with my bed lying on me for a change. More specifically, it felt as though one of the legs was resting on the middle of my face and it was completely numb. As if that wasn't enough, it seems some devilish imp had been jumping on the bed and spraying acid on my eyes and in my mouth. On top of this, my energy levels were similar to those when you get home from work at 9 o'clock knowing that you have to cook your own dinner.

Needless to say, I made my excuses, didn't go in to work and lay in bed most of the day expecting to shake it off by the evening. I felt rubbish when I shut my eyes and equally rubbish when I opened them after what felt like 26 seconds of sleep. Unfortunately, I had made a commitment to go in to work so had to drag myself down the road, on to the train and shoot off to London. Realising the absolute mess I was in, I refrained from giving someone the displeasure of a 40 minute ride with a troop of germs and stood up the whole way. In hindsight, this probably messed me up even more.

Still, this is the worst part. I had one message of sympathy in the whole day from people in the office. There I was, feeling like an extra from Outbreak and I get ONE message of sympathy. As if that wasn't enough, my supervisor decided it would be more appropriate to mock my red nostrils and croaky voice. Not impressed. Why isn't the Man Cold recognised as a serious illness? Not once have I seen a girl seem to suffer from the same crippling effects in a regular cold yet they a cold is treated as a cold.

Still, I felt a little better this morning but seem to be getting deafer. Came in to work regardless and it's been hard work so far. Not what I have been doing. It has been hard work keeping my body functioning. I haven't even attempted to get my head round what I know is going to be tricky for me with a clear mind, let alone a muddied one!

I think this has probably been the longest week in my temping career but at least it is Friday today.

Thinking ahead to the weekend, the Man Cold may get a resurgence. I'm going to watch Southend away at Gillingham in uncovered stands and there's a pretty good chance of rain. Goodo.