The Doctor is In

I haven't posted in a while because I've been wrestling with some nasty virus. Four days of fever and all the fun that goes with it! Personal favorite: delirium. (There is nothing like dreaming in HTML to rob "sleep" of all its restful properties.) Having finally gotten to the point where I'm feeling more healthy than unhealthy, my first inclination was to raise a cheer to modern medicine.

But ... why? I didn't schlepp to the doctor. I didn't take any medicines that would have killed the virus (and I know full well that antibiotics wouldn't do jack to a virus). Medical technology did allow me to check my temperature as frequently as I could manage (and, via ear rather than under my tongue, there was no increased urge to puke ... a definite plus). The few doses of ibuprofen I managed to take may have kept my fever from getting into the dangerously high range, but ibuprofen on an empty stomach ... urge to puke increasing.

In other words, modern medicine gave me a tool to monitor my fever, and another that let me reduce it, perhaps, if I could handle the puke-y feeling that came with it. Everything else was up to my immune system.

And given how happy I am that my immune system has gotten me through this little adventure, I'm now inclined to give the immune system (and other bits of "normal" functioning of the human body) at least a little more credit when I read about new and exciting medical treatments. This is not to say such treatments aren't doing something -- just that the immune system (and its ilk) may be responsible for a significant part of the outcome as well.