Going Native

Having the worst lungs on the planet isn't easy, but I somehow manage to live what feels like half my life with some kind of chest congestion or another. However, earlier this year I had a cough that just would not quit. We're talking weeks and weeks and weeks. Since none of my usual coping methods were working, I finally I decided to go to the doctor. I've had pneumonia no less than five times, bronchitis pretty much every year I can remember, and smoke-induced asthma since the 2003 Control Burn Debacle of Provo Canyon, so I was expecting that it might be something along those lines.

Nope. Diagnosis: Pertussis.

You know, Pertussis? A.k.a. whooping cough. That disease that like consumption and cholera was pretty much eradicated in developed countries by the end of the 19th century? Yep, I had that.

Lucky me.

Luckier me that there's an app for that. Skipping the part about how I was allergic to the first round of medication with disastrous results, I was eventually quickly cured of the worst of it and have lived to see another day.

Friends and family were often shocked and surprised as to how I developed such an archaic illness, so I took to joking that after having spent several months researching 19th century British social history I had simply gone native. My interest in graduate school was history from below, or the history of the common people. I read about their customs and traditions, I guess I just got a little too into their common complaints (: The idea added a bit of humor to a not-so-fun situation.

So fast forward a couple months to my annual physical. I got a call this morning from my doctor to go over the results of my blood work. The pertussis is all gone and everything else looks good except for one thing: I have ridiculously low levels of Vitamin D.

You know, Vitamin D? That thing you get mostly from the sun that makes your bones strong? Yep, I'm lacking that in a big way. Kind of like most of those 19th century British common people I was researching not too long ago. And given my apparent propensity to take things a little too far I think I can see where this is heading.

Rickets.