The Mast-Head: Wash Your Hands!

Lisa said it would get worse  before it got better and she was right. There is a rule of etiquette that says that it is impolite to talk about one’s health, but if describing the cold that has been working its way through our household will convince one person to go scrub their hands, it will have been worth it.

My wife is hardly the type of person to get sick. Colds usually set her back for half a day. Then she bounces up and goes back at it. This is good, because as a high school teacher she is exposed to all sorts of things, from great gossip to nasty viruses. Mix in our kids as vectors, and if there is something going around, we’re going to be right in its gunsights.

Back when our first child was little, the Country School in Wainscott she attended for prenursery had a rule (and probably still does) that each student had to wash his or her hands upon arrival in the morning. For us, it was a fun ritual; she would put her hands under the running water, and I would work her wrists as if she were a puppet. At this point, I can’t remember if we had fewer colds, but the hand-washing was a good lesson.

The current cold goes through the usual running nose, aches, and sneezing. Then, when you think it has run its course and you feel a little better, it takes you down again. And so it goes, in my case now, for more than a week. I blame the inflammation; Advil is about my only relief.

Science tells us that there is a link between rest and catching a cold. A study I heard about on the radio found a 20-percent reduction in symptoms among test subjects who got ample sleep. Unfortunately, circumstances have had me awake well before dawn too often lately, which does not bode well for recovery.

Keep those hands clean, people. Get enough rest. But keep the Ibuprofen ready just in case.