The other day a friend wanted to meet up. I'm like, sure, not an issue. I went on to say how I was feeling better finally after my uvula had swollen up so much that it was using my tongue as a slip and slide into a pool of stomach acid. What caused that, I was asked. No clue, I said, but I had a one-day cold two days ago, so maybe it's related. Maybe we shouldn't hang out, I was told. I don't want my girlfriend getting sick, she just started a new job. Okay, I agreed. I explained that even the doc person didn't know what was wrong and prescribed antibiotics just in case it was bacterial. Oh, in that case, come on over, I was told. Huh? Okay.
This made me chuckle. I hadn't realized he was predisposed to the same misconception that much of the general public appears to be in agreement on. Taking antibiotics means you're no longer contagious. WRONG!!
If it's an undetermined cause, taking antibiotics does not mean the infection is gone. It means the doc wanted to be safe in case it happened to be bacterial, and it is not possible that whatever invaded your body is now under fire and dying a miserable death. However, most colds and flus are caused by viruses. So, antibiotics don't mean anything unless the pathogen has been confirmed. In fact, they're overprescribed because of this exact misunderstanding over the nature of germ types. And it doesn't matter how many times you explain it to people, most will argue with you about it because they think drugs can cure everything and since you're not a doctor, you can't possibly know anything. (Like they can.) Not to say my friend argued about it with me... he's not really that type, and besides, I didn't bother to voice my understanding of the matter.
Back to the subject at hand, though. Taking antibiotics means that one's body is under additional strain because any good bacteria is targeted as much as bad bacteria. So, if anything, taking these things means that a person is more prone to suffering at the hands of additional crud (namely, viruses, which are immune to antibiotics) because the immune and nutrition centers have been compromised even further. That's reason enough to avoid seemingly healthy people that might be carrying something that has not caused an illness in the carrier. Doesn't mean someone else can't catch it, after all.
Anywho, I'm going to visit with my peoples anyway because I trust my body to do its thing and be stronger for it. There was some theory somewhere that if the body doesn't have anything to fight off that it would fight itself, hence so many allergies and such these days. It's an immunity powerhouse meant to kill pathogens. If it doesn't have its past time, it turns on itself. Interesting theory. Not going to go exposing myself to typhoid on purpose, though. But I'm not going to stop living, either.
Oh!! And I was reading about helping diarrhea, which is a common side effect of taking antibiotics. Several articles mentioned BRAT - bananas, rice, applesauce, toast. They also said, "Lots of water, but NO CAFFEINE EVER!!" I just happened to be having a nice long indulgent sip of a new, fresh tea that had arrived on my doorstep when I read that. I made a mental middle finger and stuck it up. I wasn't about to be told to refrain from a nice warm cuppa after a long day of drinking copious amounts of water and tasting the nice, dull - yet also metallic - taste of antibiotic in my mouth all afternoon. Screw you, I thought. I don't mind diarrhea. I do mind not having my cuppa!! :)
Life is good though. I feel better than I've felt in a while. For one thing, I have fresh tea and my uvula has retreated from my stomach!!
~nv
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