I've Got the Miseries

I had forgotten how quickly you can go from being someone full of energy and plans to a miserable hulk. I have been cruelly reminded.

I awakened Monday feeling as if I hadn’t gotten enough sleep. (I hadn’t.) By afternoon I was a muscle aching, throat scratching, nose running, head aching bundle of misery.

I AM HOPING THAT it is a response to the flu vaccination Adelaide and I got last week. The nurse had said it could happen, and although Adelaide hasn’t had any symptoms, in the past I haven’t a reaction either. If that isn’t it, I hope it’s one of those short-lived bugs that mimics the flu.

If it persists, I may have to go to the doctor, but those places are full of sick people, and I hate to sit in a room with people who are wheezing and sneezing and coughing. We’ve been in several physicians’ office lately for minor reasons, and I am wondering whether I picked up some germs or viruses there.

Whenever we go come down with something like I’m suffering with now, we are reminded of our physician when we were early married and living in Bradenton, Fla., a place with a high percentage of retirees. Joseph Duke was a cardiologist and internal medicine doctor, and he had a very busy practice. But when you were in his examining room, you were the most important patient of his day, and he never acted as if were try8ing to rush you out of the room.

WHAT’S MORE, Dr. Duke was accessible. You could call his office and leave a message, and Joe Duke himself would call you back. He was well ahead of his time in not prescribing antibiotics for every little ache and pain.

You’d call and when he called back, you would say, “Doc, I feel terribly. My throat hurts and my head is stopped up and I ache all over.”

“Well, you can come in and we can do some lab work, and by the time it comes in next week, you’ll be well. Or you can take aspirin, stay in bed, drink plenty of fluids and gargle, and you’ll be well in seven days.” If you happened to be in his office, he would give the same advice, but he would hold up five fingers and say, “Gargle with hot salt water—as hot as you can stand—for five minutes by the clock.” In my case, I never found Dr. Duke’s diagnosis to be wrong.

JOE DUKE KNEW each of his patients, both their health and their personalities, well enough to judge whether their complaint required medical intervention or whether nature could take care of things.

So, for the moment, I am following that long ago admonition to stay in bed, drink plenty of fluids, etc. I hope it works again.

Bill Brown is a retired newspaper editor whose newspapers won a Pulitzer Prize, National Headliners Award, Edgar Willis Scripps Award for Distinguished Service to the First Amendment and Associated Press Managing Editors Public Service and Freedom of Information Awards. He is the author of “Yellow Cat, Hendry & Me: Dispatches From Life’s Front Lines. He and his wife live in National Village in Opelika. He can be reached at bill@williamblakebrown.com