Thankfully, I’m feeling much better. I felt discouraged at how low the cold (or flu…. or whatever it was) made me feel on BOTH occasions…. and at how long it’s taken me to shake them. I guess it makes me feel old. I used to be able to rebound from a bug much faster– even ones that completely knock me down hard. In the past, I’ve picked up some sort of cold or flu viruses that have hit me so hard that I could barely think straight and left me curled in a fetal position shaking and chattering…. but were pretty much gone by the next day or so. These have lingered. And this last one has left me with a nagging cough and aching lungs.

But the aching lungs don’t come from a bug. Tuesday while I was eating lunch, a piece of rice from my meal somehow made its way into my windpipe. I tried everything I could to hock/hack it out… but it wouldn’t come. I could feel it moving from my upper esophagus into the lower area of my sinus cavity– back and forth– for several hours. And I couldn’t worm it back into my throat to spit it out. Then, later that day, I could feel it in my right lung. That would induce wild spasms of coughing that would go on for full minutes…. and not only made me feel like my chest and back were collapsing, but that the top of my head was going to explode. The headaches that these coughing spasms brought on were truly brutal. Fortunately, either the grain of rice dissolved/absorbed by my body… or it worked itself back out when I didn’t notice (maybe when I was asleep– but that might be wishful thinking). I don’t feel it in there anymore. But I’m left with hurting lungs and a raw windpipe. I guess as bad luck goes, this is pretty minor. Things could always be worse, I realize. And I’ve had it pretty cushy for a long time now… so I’m looking on the bright side.

For my next post, I’ll have something that’s actually fun or interesting (at least I HOPE) to write about. I don’t want this to become the ‘how is Mike feeling today’ blog that includes a sketch. I’d rather it be about creativity/comics/events.

This is Entry 203.

Mike