Our family has suffered from nasty colds the last few weeks. We’ve been coughing, sneezing, and honking our way through the last few weeks. First it was our daughter with a runny nose and then a persistent cough. Then it was my wife and I.

As a result of this cold virus, my sensory systems have been under attack. For the last week I haven’t been able to smell anything – a sorry state of affairs over Thanksgiving. How I long for the simple enjoyment of smelling the aroma of tea or the perfume of shampoo!

My ears are plugged up too. I’m listening to a non-stop tinnitus soundtrack. When I eat cereal it sounds like a thousand jackbooted stormtroopers marching on cobblestones. Sit on my right side, please – that’s my better ear.

I’ve always run the risk of sinus and ear infections following a cold – secondary infections, as the medical community would refer to them. I’ve managed to avoid that nasty outcome so far (knock on wood and cross fingers).

For some reason my sinus troubles often bring to mind a passage in Midnight’s Children, the novel that made Salman Rushdie’s literary career. Saleem Sinai, the narrator, suffers from sinus trouble, and the correction of the problem marks a key event in the novel. It’s the only treatment of sinus troubles that I know of in literature. That novel, by the way, deserves rereading.

In the past I’ve used an Indian yoga cure to sinus congestion – nasal irrigation using a neti pot. This time I was concerned that use of the neti pot has led to water in my ear and then ear infections, though I’m uncertain about that. Now I’m trying a steroid nasal spray called fluticasone (Flonase), which seems to help. I won’t rule out the neti pot, however; it’s especially useful, I think, if there is sinus pressure and pain but a lack of drainage.

Well, enough about me and my ills. On to other things.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 30th, 2006 at 1:41 pm and is filed under Autobiography, Books/Literature.