I have a friend who's had a really, really rough year. It started with a viral encephalitis that left him in the hospital for a few weeks and is gradually robbing him of his higher cognitive functions. Stress is an aggravating factor for his neuronal loss. He's quitting his Ph.D. cause he doesn't feel he can finish it. His wife just left him for another man – when both of them had just left for a year-long work-study trip abroad.
He just came back from Switzerland last night to try and get his life back together. I just talked to him right now. I'm shocked. I know he's probably groggy and jetlagged to hell and gone, but I've never heard him talk like this… His speech was slow and halting, like he was struggling to find the proper words.
This conversation shocked me to the core. This was a man who, this time last year, was happy, healthy and whole. It made me realize that I'm a lucky bastard. For all the whining and bitching i do, I am blessed with the love of a woman I'm madly in love with, friends that support me, and a body that's in pretty good shape, all things considered. Think about it.
This has been your 30 seconds of moralizing. We now return to the insanity currently in progress.
standard anti-virals work fine, apparently.
(http://livejournal.com/users/talisker)
(http://livejournal.com/users/montreality)