Infection

It clings to my chest, then forces itself out in a huge bellow of breath and bacteria.

My chest shudders afterwards. I’ve never been a smoker, as I knew the dangers around smoking, and the damage it causes your lungs. Nevertheless, infections seem to envelop things, and once in its grips, it doesn’t let go—its tendrils working their way through the body.

You can try to escape being infected, but with the weather, that’s practically impossible. We try. We fail. But we try.

Another cough, another spray of sickness, and another gasp for air. It refuses to unclaim me as a victim. Things have tried to help and heal me along the way: an empty pack of Lemsip in the bin, accompanied by tissues, and four packs of Halls Soothers. I’ve submerged myself in several hot baths full of Olbas Oil, coated myself in Vicks, and still the war inside my body continues—rampaging on, taking me as its prisoner.

The fog enshrouds. It corrupts. It pollutes. Another huge balloon of bacteria explodes from my mouth, covering my hand in flicks of spit.

The infection giggles at my pain—it thrives in it. Laughing, as a hunch of phlegm shoots from my throat into the sink, small spots of crimson interspersing the yellow. It grins as razor blades cut at the inside of my throat, and gravel is added afterwards to soothe things.

Eventually it will start to heal. Wounds and tears flower over with new petals, new cells. The blocked ear finally popping, allowing sound to flood back into your ears and envelop you in a whole new world. Stuffed noses finally functioning as they once did—and you swear to appreciate your sense of smell better…until two days later when you forget. The cough that rattled your skeleton for days on end becomes a whisper. This illness that kept you bedridden and helpless, struggling to breathe, will soon fade. Its power grows weaker and weaker. Its grasp loosens.

Reality sinks back in: travelling, going to work, eating at restaurants, doing normal things. Enjoying a normal sense of body function, and getting things done. Then, all of a sudden, your head starts to get fuzzy… and you start developing a sore throat.