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Cure for the Common Cold

There are few feelings of dread worse than that first indication of a sore throat in the middle of a steady barrage of intensive plans for your immediate future. The idea that the roll you’re on — all the tightly paced contingencies and deadlines you’ve scheduled over the next few weeks — can be interrupted by time resigned to bed, or at least complicated by the discomfort of sneezing and coughing, is a rude reminder of human fallibility. That’s how I felt on Wednesday afternoon, as my throat grew noticeably more and more constricted when I swallowed, and all the deadlines staring me down over the next week suddenly looked dicey.

Rest and Recuperate

People with heartier constitutions than mine might prefer just to work through a cold, but when this happens to me, I always seem to succumb to the symptoms instead and wind up in bed for days at a time. Partly that’s because, after multi-tasking and over-extending myself for months on end, I feel like a cold is the only way my body can unilaterally demand rest. I certainly don’t enjoy the sneezing, coughing, wheezing and reduced strength of illness, but in some ways, I secretly relish the time away from the rat race. It’s nice to sit at home and be responsible for much, much less than I would be at full health, to be able to watch a stack of rented movies and nap whenever I like. When else do I allow myself that kind of luxury?

Miracle Drug

That didn’t quite happen this time. A friend of mine recommended Airborne, an all-natural remedy that you drop in a glass of water, watch fizz and then drink, Alka-Seltzer-style. I’d never heard of it before, but apparently it’s wildly popular; three pharmacies I visited were sold out and advised me that, whenever it was that they’d get new shipments, their supplies would sell out again immediately.

That’s because this stuff works really well. I can attest to that. After taking regular doses of Airborne since Thursday, it’s warded off most of the messier symptoms of my routine bug — four days into this, I still have no coughing, sneezing or congestion. I’m functional and relatively unencumbered by cold symptoms, which is pretty amazing. What’s more, taking this stuff has allowed me to continue plugging away at my desk, which I’ve been doing all weekend with reasonable success. As a result, I’ll be able to make my deadlines on Monday and Tuesday, where I might otherwise have not. I guess I should be thankful to Airborne for that, but I can’t help but think to myself that it would have been nice to have been able to sit on my ass all weekend, too.

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