Thursday, March 1, 2018

Super Bugs



The super bug is with us, these mutating pathogens have had centuries of adaptation into the human environment.
A path of deadly devastating epidemics spreads worldwide with inter- continental connectivity accelerating the spread from years to hours or as fast as a jumbo jet can traverse the globe.
Antibiotics were the heaven sent savior.
Now those same antibiotics have been overtaken by the evolutionary adaptability of the new super bug.
Over-prescribed wonder drugs no longer work and the pathogens are dominating.
My wife Jane and I take every precaution. We are regularly vaccinated, avoid crowds, give a wide berth to people sniffling, coughing, and other typhoid Mary types. We persistently wash and sanitize ourselves, and this is not enough. Our regiment of precautions has kept us free of any colds or other respiratory infections for more than ten years.
Long story short: Less than a month ago I got a stiffly nose that in two days degenerated into a listless malaise. As to from where and who I got the virus, there are the usual thousand suspects.
Jane saved my life. This was not the common cold or phenomena...I had a low-grade fever, and I had five severe coughing/strangulating asthma attacks in one night. This surely would have killed me if Jane with her expertise on treating asthma had not been at my side every step of the way with just the right treatments as the asthma attacks cut off my air. The violent coughing that followed caused convulsive muscle spasms that could have caused broken ribs or abdominal hernias...that did not happen but the painful aftereffects felt like it had. Leg and abdomen strained muscles would heal in time. It was a week before recovery began.