Family Moab

Family Moab
In Arches National Park

Thursday, May 13, 2021

A Shocking Stuffiness

I woke up yesterday morning and something was amiss. Back pain, check, that's an everyday occurrence. Stumbling forward from bed to the alarm clock like a drunkard at 2am on perpetually sore feet, also normal. I performed my morning ablutions, confused as to my fogginess, when I realized that my nose was stuffy!  I haven't needed to use a Kleenex in over a year and but yesterday I had to go searching for saline spray and menthol.

We've been outrageously, absurdly lucky that in the past fifteen months of pandemic we haven't fallen prey to COVID-19 or even the usual seasonal bugs. All the mask-wearing, distancing and working from home kept us safe, I suppose, and my body forgot what it was like to be under attack from allergies or the common cold. A few teaching shifts in the water with young children blew that streak right out of the water. Those pesky young kid germs snuck right under my face shield and attacked when my guard was down.

We've been fortunate to escape the last year with our physical health intact. (Mental health, another story). Four of us are fully vaccinated and immune from COVID;  even our fifteen-year-old can get a vaccine now, and he's scheduled for his first shot on Sunday. We're unused to coughs and colds, our bar set at clear sinuses and easy breathing. My older son avoided me like the plague when he saw me reaching for tissues last night. "Stay away!" he said, "I can't get sick!" I guess I should be glad he's even paying attention to my existence.

I wonder if germ avoidance caused our immune systems to weaken, or if the frantic pace of work and family support over the past few weeks finally took a toll. Stress can be dangerous, and being back out in the world has increased my cortisol levels. Time to rest, avoid paranoid family members, and mask up in public. The last one, at least, is now routine.




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