(If you are oogied out by mention of bodily fluids, you might
want to skip this one! I quite understand…)

•••

Naturally, I employ Dr. Google’s expertise:

Snot, or nasal mucus, is a helpful bodily product.
Your nose and throat are lined with glands that produce
1 to 2 quarts of mucus every day. You swallow that
mucus all day long without knowing it.

Yeah, OK, so why this overproduction, this
turn-on-the-endless-waterworks already?

Increased snot production is one way your body
responds to colds and allergies. [and the Big Bad Bug]
That’s because mucus can act as both a defense
against infection and a means of ridding the body
of what is causing inflammation in the first place.

Yeah, OK, but if I swallow it daily without a problem…

Normally, mucus is very thin and watery.
When the mucous membranes become inflamed,
however, mucus can thicken. Then it becomes
the runny-nose snot that is such a nuisance.

You said it, Dr. Google! And then the scratchy throat
flashes its green light self to the fat snot, both
conspiring to keep me coughing, despite lozenges
and honey throat-coat and hot tea. Water.
And lots of Vitamin C. (C’mon, immunes!)

Bright spot: It’s washing the oogie germs outta me,
which I need to keep from my kind host. Thus,
isolation—don’t walk around spewing snot, Janis.

So what do you recommend? I ask Dr. Google.

Gentle nose blowing (in addition to what I’m
already doing). Vigorous nose blowing
can actually send some of your mucus
back into your sinuses.

Sigh.

And, from deep inside my mucus-y head
or perhaps my reliable heart:

This, too, will pass, my friend.
EGBOK.*

•••

*EGBOK: an acronym favored by my Grandma Keeley: “Everything’s gonna be OK.”

•••