The Cold That Keeps On Giving

I started coming down with a cold right before we left the ship. Now, I have graciously passed it along to Helaine and Stef. Helaine is currently sniffling at home. Steffie is sniffling at my parent’s place in Florida (and therefore gets zero sympathy).

Call Guiness. It’s possible this could go three generations, if my folks catch it.

I originally wrote about my cold because of the lovely sensation of flying cross country with clogged nose and ears and the simulation of knitting needles poking toward my brain.

OK – enough analogy. As a guy who can’t watch someone on TV getting a shot, maybe I should stop.

I wondered, if it’s so tough for me (and, of course, I am a very macho and stoic man), how do pilots perform with a cold? You wouldn’t want the guy at the controls of your jetliner wheezing and feeling loads of self pity.

As it turns out, a friend of Helaine’s is married to a pilot for a major commercial airline. Helaine asked her friend.

You asked how Bill flies with a cold. He doesn’t.

If he feels one coming on before a trip, he calls in sick since he can’t medicate himself. He’s only allowed to take Tylenol. If he wakes up sick while on the road, someone else picks up the trip and he rides as a passenger so he can take cold medicine for the congestion.

He tried to “fly sick” once and the pain was awful. Usually he picks up a cold at the end of his trip and brings it home to share with Jason and I. Isn’t that thoughtful?!

Of course, when we get it, the cold isn’t nearly as horrible as the one he had. Men… Gotta love ’em!

Wow! Who would have thought a cold was enough to ground a pilot?

As far as the comment portraying all men as wimps is concerned…. So?