Feeling defeated

I hate admitting defeat, but this morning I feel defeated. My throat is scratchy, my head hurts, my nose feels stuffy... I have not had a full-blown cold for five years. At the very first symptoms of a cold I fight tooth and nail to keep from getting it - for obvious reasons. I'm a music teacher and a worship leader, and it's hard to sing when you have a cold. Well, I fought tooth and nail yesterday to fight this thing off. I probably ingested illegal amounts of Hall's Defense Lozenges (with vitamin C, echinacea, and zinc), Zicam Rapid Melts (same ingredients), and green tea. And of course Zicam nose gel (not ingested, in case you're worried!) But this morning I feel like crap. I know there are other things I haven't tried yet, like Emergen-C, as I read on someone else's blog. So I will be going to CVS today.

I know that they say you can't get a cold from being cold - it has to be a germ. But there is no doubt in my mind that being cold can make those nasty germs work better and faster, at least in my body. The last time I had a cold was in 2004. We had been helping Jeremy to paint at his house in Lancaster City one February evening, when we discovered that our Explorer had been broken into. We called the police and then waited for them to arrive, which they did not do for a couple of hours (broken car windows and stolen cameras are low on the list of their priorities at 10:00 PM) Jeremy's house was cold, because it was big and old and he could not afford to keep it toasty warm. As we sat and waited, I could feel myself getting chilled to the bone. A day or two later I had a full-blown cold which lasted for at least four weeks.

So the other day when we were sitting in the school gym for our CPR class, even though I had my coat on and I heard the PE teacher say that he had turned the heat up to 70 degrees, I was cold. I could feel that chill going into my bones, and I was thinking, "I'd better not get sick from this."

Well, time for my next cup of tea.