Fall Colds

This is not about cold weather although I do like it when the leaves change and the temperatures cool down. Really, when the weatherman says we are having a cold front come through and all he means is that instead of 96 degrees it is going to be 89 degrees, well I find a little weirdness in that. I have had my first fall, is it fall yet, cold. I was fine last Sunday. On Monday I went to Blah Blah's birthday party and was fine. No one there was sick. On Tuesday night I started getting a scratchy throat. Thinking maybe it was allergies I did not worry but then on Wednesday it got worse. Uh oh, I thought to myself. Since my diagnosis of RA and all that includes a psycho immune system plus all the wonderful drugs that deplete the little immune system you have just so you can function, I have found that I have a pattern to colds. I get a sore throat for a day or two and then it goes away. The first couple of times this happened I thought I had escaped being sick. But, on about the third day that is when the congestion, runny nose (how is that possible at the same time?) and general crappiness starts only to take a full two weeks before it is completely gone. This has become my pattern for colds. I was a little perturbed because this weekend Matthew was having everybody over for fajitas with all the yummies that go with them. I kept trying to tell myself all week that I was not really sick, that it is just allergies, the pollen, but as the week went by I knew it was a cold. First you can't sleep because you can't breathe and then you can't sleep because you wake up coughing. I think I am getting better but I had to miss the fajita get together today because I did not want to expose anyone but especially the little grandgirls and Matthew himself who has his own immune challenges. So here I sit, drinking Diet Coke. I have been thinking about this time of year and the coming flu season. I know a lot of churches are like mine where everyone greets everyone else and shakes hands. That is the only place I have been where I might have gotten this cold. So what do those who are immune challenged do this time of year. I mean you do not want to appear rude or unfriendly, frankly I do not want to have to say sorry I don't want your germs and pull out my Purel in the middle of church. I think that we can be friendly but I think at this time of year especially there has to be another way to solve this. How about an announcement from the pulpit, hey it's the cold and flu season just say hi and don't shake hands. That might help against the spread of germs. If not then I guess I will become the lady who sits in the back with her Purel bottle.