I hope recovery happens soon.

Antibiotics Humor:

http://badgods.com/search/antibiotics

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Hope things improve for y'all soon!

I noticed that Queen Elizabeth was in the hospital during the weekend because she had had a stomach virus for several days, and I wondered if she had also been stricken by the evil norovirus and was in need of rehydration.

Hoping you both feel much better soon!

If I get over this respiratory thing in time, I'll be able to keep my appointment on Friday, when I'm scheduled to have my left foot taken apart and reassembled in better order. This is trivial compared to the structural repairs and alterations some of you have had to deal with. I'm clear on that. I'm working on the theory that it's like having renovations done on my subway station, only more personal.

If I do anything too weird in the aftermath (say, hypothetically, posting in Middle or Early Modern English), just wave.

Best wishes for both getting to the surgery and having it go well, and for your foot being significantly improved by the result.

I'm not sure that even counts as weird, for Teresa. She was writing Chaucerian jokes on the wall at SFContario I.

(Note - there was a sheet of paper on the wall. No vandalism took place.)

Get well, you two.

Or maybe I spent too many years in school. (Oddly, this is one reason I did *not* become a doctor, which is What I Want[ed] To Be When I Grow Up when I was in grade school.)

Get well soon, Patrick! (And Teresa if she's still going through the same.) Here's hoping the antibiotic passes the test!

I often wonder about the doctrine of Penal-Substitutionary Atonement, though. I hope no-one here is needing a Prostate-Specific Antigen. That would be a real PITA.

My coat! Thank you!

...And I had much the same thought when my partner was in chemo. "We're going to give this to you, and hope it kills the cancer before it kills you." The only thing that saved that idea was "well, it's better than the alternative."

Fingers crossed that we don't get blessed with the norovirus. I've done that one once (many years ago), and do not desire a repetition of the experience.

And we're told the Snowquester is bearing down on us. We may get as much as six inches of snow. I'll believe that when it's actually on the ground.

Here's to all those suffering the ills of the season. May you speedily return to good health!

Glad y'all are recovering!

You should cool your rabbit down and enrol it for anger management classes.

Sarah Wynde #22:

AFAIK, "He's been sick for six weeks" is or should be, an entirely sufficient rebuttal to "it's just a cold". If, after hearing that, the doctor continued to say "it's just a cold", it may be time to find another doctor.

Unfortunately, the longer duration does not mean it's a bacterial infection. And I don't know how many of the viral candidates have useful diagnostic tests. Bacterial candidates can be spotted more easily, but that does take some time.)

I'm not the only person I know who's had this thing in Edinburgh; it seems to be doing the rounds this winter (along with a hideous norovirus epidemic in Scotland -- which I've been lucky enough to dodge: at its peak it apparently affected one in four of the population).

All I can recommend is tea, sympathy, and lots of afternoon naps. Oh, and Advil™ or similar for the aches and pains (subject to medical advice).

Note on antibiotics: yes, they're a bit like chemotherapy agents, except they target intracellular components that bacteria possess and multi-cellular organisms (like us) don't. But don't underestimate the effects they have on your normal commensal gut bacteria!

It's been making the rounds here (Montreal) as well; I'm on my 3rd week of it. That it pretty much followed up on a different cold I had over the Xmas/New Year season isn't making it any better. I'm working on my 3rd consecutive month of "ill".

I had a theory that it was a flu virus that was an okay-but-not-great match to the flu vaccine this year. I knew a few people that got knocked sideways by the flu who hadn't gotten the shot. Everyone else was merely knocked diagonal, which was plenty bad.

But... I also have to say that I really loved this line: Microbial civilizations are dying inside of me. I could hear the lamentation of their women.

Not unlikely... "making the perfect the enemy of the good" really doesn't work for vaccines.

Feel better soon, you two!

I did the quote up as a sampler with lots of elaborate stitchery once. "Lamentations" is a long, long word.

(Though it would probably be honest to say that I wish I didn't have such tragically low frustration tolerance. I suspect that's the real sticking point.)

"Lamentations" is a long, long word.

You know, I never noticed this until now, but it's also a really nice word, especially given what it means. (Is there an opposite to word aversion?) It strikes me as aesthetically pleasing to both the eye and ear. "Melancholy" is a bit like that too, though more to ear I suppose. I wonder why that is?

Cellophane Underwear!
What a calamity
A fashion statement
That should have been scrapped.

Therefore, a model, quite
Apologetically,
Told the photographer
"Not nude; nor wrapped"