“I’ve had this cough since before Christmas,” said the lady sitting across the table from me at church on Tuesday. I looked at the pork chop and apples on my plate. “Really?” I replied. Panic is what I thought. My mind was racing to find a tactful way to move tables when the woman sitting beside me announced that she was getting over pneumonia. Great, I thought. I’m surrounded.
Our experts in Hermansky-Pudlak Syndrome strongly warn us against getting colds, and especially respiratory infections. They believe the fibrosis in our lungs may result from insults like these that happen slowly over time. Avoiding colds and coughs could, over time, ensure I’m around a bit longer. “Don’t be afraid of offending people if you need to get up and move away from someone coughing,” Kevin, our nurse practitioner told me in one of his “talks” during a recent visit to the National Institutes of Health. Easier said than done. His words rang through my mind as I nibbled on a carrot and tried to inconspicuously glance around the room for an open seat at another table. There was none.
I stayed put. I talked about grandchildren and upcoming committee meetings and who was reading what book. I thought about the foamy macrophages on the slide presentation a doctor gave at our recent HPS Family Conference. No one sputtered or hacked, at least not much. I think I’m safe, after all, they’re probably not contagious at this point. I hope….
Our experts in Hermansky-Pudlak Syndrome strongly warn us against getting colds, and especially respiratory infections. They believe the fibrosis in our lungs may result from insults like these that happen slowly over time. Avoiding colds and coughs could, over time, ensure I’m around a bit longer. “Don’t be afraid of offending people if you need to get up and move away from someone coughing,” Kevin, our nurse practitioner told me in one of his “talks” during a recent visit to the National Institutes of Health. Easier said than done. His words rang through my mind as I nibbled on a carrot and tried to inconspicuously glance around the room for an open seat at another table. There was none.
I stayed put. I talked about grandchildren and upcoming committee meetings and who was reading what book. I thought about the foamy macrophages on the slide presentation a doctor gave at our recent HPS Family Conference. No one sputtered or hacked, at least not much. I think I’m safe, after all, they’re probably not contagious at this point. I hope….
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