"Feed a cold, starve a fever" apparently have been joined by "push fluids to bronchitis"—or at least that's what I was advised when I visited the Kaiser HMO urgent-care clinic last evening. My going-in statement, "I've got a 38 mile run this weekend, so I need you to fix me up fast!" apparently amused the nurses and doctor; I heard them repeating it to one another in the hallway as they got to work.

In the winters of 2005-6 and 2007-8 I came down with a bad cold that turned into a lingering cough. Winter 2009-10 came and went I thought had I dodged the bullet, until this week when a bad cold turned into a lingering cough with wheezing sounds that even I could hear. Modern medicine has progressed somewhat, thank goodness. Two sessions on a nebulizer machine breathing albuterol and ipratropium got my heart rate up but seemed to cut down the lung noise. I was sent home with a multi-day course of prednisone and azithromycin plus an inhaler of albuterol.

"No running for 7-10 d" the printout says; it doesn't mention cycling, swimming, or speed-hiking, but I'll try to be good and restrain myself, in hopes of a speedier recovery. Albuterol/salbutamol is on the World AntiDoping Association prohibited drug list, so I guess I can't set any official records anyway while I'm on it. But how can I "push fluids" when I'm out of Negra Modelo beer? Hmmm ... is chocolate ice cream a fluid?

^z - 2010-03-25