Miserable
This past week I have been miserable. I’ve been full of a cold, one that really knocked me for six and made me utterly down in the dumps. Usually, a cold lasts for two days with me, but this one was particularly nasty; aching all over, sore eyes, blocked sinuses and earache. Man flu, I hear the ladies scream, well scream all you want. It wasn’t a pleasant experience, I can tell you, and one which I am not yet over, but I am well on the road to recovery.
Now whilst I don’t like being ill, I do wonder how someone my size (round is a term that fits me particularly well) can be brought down by something as small as a virus. Even as viruses go, the rhinovirus – one of the main causes of the common cold – is a tiny little thing measuring roughly 30 nanometres in diameter. I am suspecting that means very little to you – pardon the pun – as it did to me, so to put it into perspective, a human hair is between 80-100,000 nanometres thick. That means you could put 3000 of these little blighters across the average single strand of hair, although I am not sure I want anything to do with hair covered with these particular critters.
Rhinovirus – By No machine-readable author provided. Robin S assumed (based on copyright claims). – No machine-readable source provided. Own work assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1867087
It makes me wonder, with all the medical advancement we have had over the centuries, why do we still suffer these particular viruses? More importantly, how on earth (or anywhere else in the universe they may exist) do they fit into the eco system? What has mother nature got in mind when she creates a snotty, wobbly, thoroughly miserable creature for a few days?
Answers on a postcard to the usual address