Senior Summer Cold

Is it just me, or have those of you who read my blog that are of an advanced age, not to specify any particular age, noticed that recovery from colds appears to take much longer than in our past younger days?  Additionally, when one is not feeling well, untoward events are more likely to occur.

After a wonderful vacation on the Olympic Isle in Washington State, I came down with a cold along with an unceasing cough and concomitant fatigue. I neither had a fever nor a sore throat, but both the coughing and feeling of exhaustion refused to go away.  Thinking I had caught a strain of Covid, I tested negative.  After the cough and exhaustion persisted for over 10 days, I did a telephone consult with a doctor who suggested I go to Urgent Care.  Not particularly wanting to go, I decided to take the doctor’s advice.  When I got to Urgent Care, I took a test for Covid and was relieved when it once more was negative.  Upon going, I was able to see a doctor who ordered an antibiotic and had me take a chest X-ray to rule out pneumonia.

Subsequently, I purchased the medicine with a credit card.  I recalled having difficulty making the payment as the message on the screen indicated to insert again.  When the credit card payment was finally accepted, I left the with the small bag containing the pills.  The pharmacy and diagnostic imaging were conveniently in the same area.   Because the majority of people waiting were unmasked, I changed seats a few times before the technician called my name to take the X-ray.  During the waiting period, I was trying to find my reading glasses to do the Wednesday NY Times crossword puzzle.  In addition, I was looking at my iPhone at the Red Sox game against the Texas Rangers. 

In less than thirty minutes, I heard my name summoning me to the X-ray room.   Because it was my chest, the technician told me not to take off my clothes but I did remove a few items, such as pens and iPhone, from my pocket.  Within a few minutes, the X-ray was completed and, as I walked out of the room, things got hairy.  Something felt wrong. Upon putting my hands in my pocket, I could not feel my wallet:  It was gone.  Trying to remain as calm as I could, I retraced my steps.  I knew I had my wallet when I paid the pharmacy with my credit card so I immediately returned there to see if my wallet had been turned in.  When I asked if a black wallet had been found, one of the workers checked in the back and reported that there was nothing.  She told me to go to the reception desk, adjacent to the pharmacy, and inquire there.

No luck there!  Though I was quite sure I had not lost my wallet in a restroom, the receptionist had security check all the bathrooms in the Urgent Care area.  No trace of a wallet.  I then looked at the seats by diagnostic Imaging hoping perhaps, unknowingly, my wallet had fallen out of a pocket while I was trying to find my reading glasses.  Once more my searches throughout the waiting area were futile.  One last follow-up at the reception desk bore similar results.  To add insult to injury, I noticed on my iPhone the Red Sox had blown a 3-run lead in the ninth inning and ultimately lost the game in the 10^th.  It was one of those days that your glad ends so you can start afresh the next day.

Although I left my name and phone number with security informing them of the loss, I was pretty certain someone had picked it up and had decided to keep it (losers’ weepers finders’ keepers).  Unfortunately, I was right because my daily check with security proved fruitless. How I lost it will remain a mystery.   What caused the loss perhaps can be explained by my watching a baseball game online while at the same time working on a crossword puzzle. Because I could not locate my reading glasses in my pocket, I was having difficulty reading the clues.  But more importantly, I was not in the best of all spirits so these factors may have distracted me enough to not notice, until about half hour later, my missing wallet.

Of course, upon arriving at my car, I discovered my reading glasses tucked nicely into my front pocket.  Upon returning home, I immediately had all the credit card companies put a lock on the cards in my wallet.  I then went to bed that evening with a splitting headache along with a cough, though less persistent than it had been.

When I woke up, I felt well enough to do my rotation on the Senior Police Patrol, a voluntary community service that I am involved in.  An officer told me I could replace my driver’s license online without having to go to the DMV. That was good news. Furthermore, my ability to sit and write this blog is a clear indicator that my health has improved as I had zilch energy previously.  I have tested negatively every day for Covid.  

Now that I have regained my health, my wife Lisa tested positive for Covid but, thank goodness, is not feverish.  We will have to isolate from one another as was typical when Covid became an epidemic.  The nuisance of having to cancel and obtain new credit cards and replace my driver’s license, in the scheme of things, is small. The week after I had lost my wallet, my brother-in-law, Bill, discovered that he had left his wallet at Costco after he returned home.  His luck was better than mine inasmuch as it was turned in at lost and found.  So, despite my bad luck, there are still some good Samaritans out there.  The lesson I learned is not to multitask–that may lead to less focus and attention–when one is not feeling well.