mjm wired ;)  

I'm not sure from where I caught it, but about 2 weeks ago I fell ill and lost my voice. After 5 days of not being able to talk clearly I went to see the doctor and he informed me that I had laryngitis caused by a bacterial throat infection. The odd thing was that he told me to wait another 2 days before starting the anti-biotics. Unfortunately the next day it got worse, so I started that day itself. It took 2 more days before I could talk without straining myself. After the 5 day anti-biotic regimen I had regained about 90% or so of my voice. I couldn't laugh or sing, but that didn't bother me so much. As I write this, I know I'm recovered even though I still have a slight cough.

My brother had a cold a few weeks ago, and at the same time I had been planning a trip to Texas. I would be leaving on a friday night. The thursday before, I was a little upset because I could feel a slight sore throat developing. I doped up on Zinc, vitamin C and cough drops in the hopes it wouldn't ruin the weekend. On the flight, I felt a little odd during the pressurization of the cabin. On the ascent, there was no trouble, however on the descent, my ears would not "pop". I tried swallowing, holding my nose, holding my breath, but nothing worked. I started to get a little nervous, as the pressure caused some intense pain for my head. Luckily for me an Indian doctor was seated next to me (what are the chances?). He said, not to worry, and that after the connecting flight when I go up and then down it will balance out. I felt a little bit better, at least psychologically.

The connecting flight was short, after taking off, I felt the pressure release ever so slightly. And I was so releaved. But during the descent the same thing happened again. I started wondering in my head. What will happen to me? Will I collapse? Will my nose bleed? Will I damage my eardrums? Will this affect my batting average? Unfortunately this time there was only some senior citizen dreaming about his golf clubs next to me. Who lost his keys. Poor guy.

I made it out of the airport and to my destination without incident. I thought if I slept it off, I would feel better. However from that saturday morning my voice went and it only got worse over the weekend. Sometime sunday afternoon, my ears did finally "pop". Of course by then I had become accustomed to the dampened noise. So instantly the volume went up everywhere. Just weird. Well that sunday was a bit nicer.

Even so, the trip wasn't entirely ruined, but it's tough to talk and have a good time if your only choices are knodding or talking like the godfather. Its been 15 days and I'm back to blogging. In case anyone was wondering, there was no repeat pressure incidents on the return flights. Now I'm trying to figure out the moral of the story. I couldn't pinpoint who "infected me" and I can't ever recall getting so bad during a trip (or flight), so I guess it will be one of those odd experiences in life.