A free cold with every visit

Sometimes I feel like people will think I'm just faking all my reasons to feel less than my best. After all, I'm still recovering from a bike accident that happened all the way back in March, for crying out loud. (The "blood bubble" in my knee remains. My knee works fine most of the time but even a slight bump against it at the wrong angle can set it off into pain.) And last week I had another kidney stone which was bad enough for me to take a day off work (at a time when that was a very inconvenient day to take off).

So what am I doing nursing a cold today?

Saturday night I had a sore spot in my throat but it was so localized I thought it was more like a scratch I got by swallowing a pill wrong or something. By Sunday night, I had enough sniffles that I thought it was likely I might have a cold, but I wasn't 100% sure. But as I write this on Monday afternoon, I'm deep in the deepest part of a full-blown head cold, with a stuffed-up head, sniffles, coughing and sneezing, and a tendency to get tired easily. I can hope that since it came on so fast it might pass just as fast -- after all, I don't want to be sick at Al's bachelor party at Pizza Putt, and I really don't want to be sick on the flight to the UK.

Just a run of really awful luck? Am I worn out from the ongoing strain of work being impossibly demanding without ever letting up? Am I having some kind of chronic issue?

I think the most likely explanation is a bit of bad luck mixed with the fact that, almost every time I go to a hospital, it seems I get a cold after. People often get sick after visiting hospitals simply because they're full of other sick people.

It'll be hard to take more time off from work after the time I've already missed and the state of some of our projects, but I'll find a way to do enough to make sure I'm ready for lazer tag.