Having a cold

I make a terrible patient. I am in fact an impatient. I have a cold, sufficient to cause cold sweats on walking to college and a nasty cough which hurts my chest. This is all pretty minor in the scheme of things, but I am going mad with boredom already. The problem seems to be that I feel pretty much ok when I am sat down. However, any activity that exceeds, say, turning the page of my book, makes me feel faint and sick. I am not impressed. I went to radiology teaching this morning at the hospital and coughed my way through it. I think I learned something, but I decided not to go up to a ward full of chemo patients and expose them to my virus. By the time I got to the bus stop I felt quite unwell again, which only confirmed my confidence in my choice.

Now I'm at home, making a desultory effort to read a cancer biology textbook and I am bored brainless and feeling much better. I am now very impressed by the stoicism and fortitude embodied by the patients on the ward, who seem to take infinitely more serious and distressing illnesses with infinitely more patience!