Cabin Fever... not just a euphemism anymore

'Tis healthy to be sick sometimes.” Henry David Thoreau




The Sick Child - Gabriel Metsu,, oil on canvas 
c.1660, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

I hope Thoreau is right about that. I'm hanging my hopes on it.  Right now, I'm wondering just how long this can go on.

I live in a home with seven occupants. Three of them have come down sick in the last two weeks, the two smallest members of the family just this week. I'm beginning to think that Cabin Fever is a real maladay. After all, we're cooped up for weeks at a time with no place to run when the first person becomes the viral vector for the rest of the family. Cabin? For heaven's sake, we might as well be living in a petrie dish.

It starts harmlessly enough...sniffles and a runny nose at first. Slight cold, I thought when the symptoms first appeared in the host vector (my oldest sone). Then came the  raging fever, chills, and cough. Oh, great. How could this happen? 

Did it come from here?

             Was this the culprit?

       


Or maybe this?                



Of course, it was probably something more like this:

Naturally, I tried everything to stem the tide of illness. As the victims fell, one by one,

                                   



I tried some of this

      ...and lots of this

But to no avail.

Maybe I should have tried this

By Tuesday, Little Man had been sick with "the crud" (as it was so aptly named by my friend, Dubby) for a few days when Little Beauty started with the runny nose. I knew I had to go into Medical Mode.

   

     I channeled my inner nurse

 

        

         

          And of course, the spirit of the greatest doctor of all time

                    What do you mean he's not a real person?

 I passed out

some of this

 ...A lot of that

  

And even this

I'm kidding, of course.

Mostly, I passed out these

 

Goodnight Hug - Mary Cassatt

I was determined to contain the spread of Cabin Fever. I tried good hygiene practices.

 

           

I tried quarantining the sick.                                       

    

Influenza epidemic of 1918 - Washington, D.C.

                         

 And I even tried praying to the saints

                   I'm kidding about that, too. I know very few saints.

                                                                                 

               I've done all I can.  There's really only one thing left to do....

Woman on the Fainting Couch - Amy Neunsinger

       Rest, drink plenty of fluids, and wait for it to pass. Ugh.

Correction: Four of us have come down with Cabin Fever. 

I hope you have good health today.

Here is my go-to music for feeling better. It cures just about every malady in my book. Here is my favorite composer (Chopin), my favorite piece (Scherzo No. 2 in B Flat Minor, Op. 31), played by my favorite pianist (Vladimir Ashkenazy).

I swear, that Chopin was some romantic guy. I probably should have saved this piece for Valentine's Day, because to me, it depicts a passionate and intimate evening of romance.

Can you hear it, too?

Well, maybe it's just the fever talking. Enjoy!