Saint Matthew's

Yesterday, while hacking up a lung, I decided to clean my bedroom. The sheets needed changing, the furniture needed dusting, and the carpet needed vacuuming. However, in the course of dusting I made an error: I knocked over my television.

And yes, it died.

It was a 20-inch Curtis Mathis television, bought for less than 90 bucks back in 2000, about seven months before I headed off for seminary. Then I just wanted a small television for my bedroom. And from Yonkers to Fort Wayne (and back several times), from Fort Wayne to Sayville and back, this television took the ride. From the time money was plunked down until yesterday, the television worked flawlessly.

But after dropping it, the old Kmart blue light special is kaput.

It will be put out with the garbage tomorrow.

I have been pretty sick-free for almost a year, a year and a half. For a while, I’ve had this feeling that when I do get sick, I was really going to get whacked.

And I did.

My body has been racked with the worst cold/flu that I’ve had in a long while. My body has been pounded with heavy congestion in my head and chest; my throat has been raw; every part of my body ached; I somehow got around with a slight fever that topped out at 101; and I’ve been hacking with the ugliest cough I’ve had since I contracted pneumonia back in December 2003.

From Friday until yesterday, I felt like I was put through a ringer.

Today has been a little better. After speaking with my doctor – who yelled at me and called me an “idiot” for not calling her when I initially felt symptoms coming on – she suggested that I go out and pick up Mucinex D at the local pharmacy. That is what I did this morning and popped the first two pills at 11:15am. And I have to be honest, I didn’t believe that $14 box of pills would work as prescribed.

But it has. Wow!

My head is cleared up and my phlegm in my chest is looser. Yes, I am still coughing, but not as loud.

After a couple of days with these pills, I will call my doctor on Wednesday and let her know how I am doing.

So far, so good.