I had half expected to be fighting a non-stop battle with colds this year.
I’m not sure if the viruses are any different here than in the UK, but a combination of my immuno-suppressive medication and the low-level stress of living in a different environment was always going to give the little blighters an advantage.
And I do seem to have had a succession of colds since the end of last summer, more than I usually get in the UK. What is typical – especially since I started on Remicade – is that I feel full of aches, with a blocked nose and sinuses and a lingering headache.
I also feel wiped out and exhausted, so it’s not always apparent if it is my Crohn’s playing up as well. Sometimes all this seems to trigger my guts to go haywire in any case.
It’s all rather annoying and frustrating as these colds interfere with me enjoying life in France almost as much as my Crohn’s does. And so it is good to have moan and feel sorry for myself from time to time.
Our French friends and acquaintances have all been very concerned about the ups and downs of my health, all of which has been very genuine and comforting. In the UK, I feel that talk about health problems creates distance between people rather than bringing them closer together – unless the problem is shared, of course.
I think I can support the theory that it takes much longer to get to know people in France than in the UK, but, unlike in the UK, conversations about health problems arrive very early in this process.
Bowels are a particularly common topic of conversation if the opportunity arises. Maybe this is something to do with the importance of food and drink in French life and culture?
Yet toilets are notoriously filthy (although much less than 20 years ago) and often unisex, with urinals next to the shared hand basin. It is still always a good idea to carry toilet roll or tissues too.
Although these differences freaked me out a little when we arrived, they are just normal now. Somehow, avoiding all mention of bowels and going to pristine toilets with piped music and automatic air-freshener seems weird.
Will I be able to re-adjust? Will I be seeking out the most filthy, smelly and overflowing public toilets in Brighton? I suspect the problem will be finding any at all.
As I have said before, I am a little anxious about going back to the UK and the swine-‘flu pandemic – there are still only 400 cases in France, mainly people who have had holidays in Mexico, America and Britain.
I know what to do – get registered with a GP as soon as I get off the ferry and take all the precautions I always do – but I cannot feel 100% relaxed about it all. Especially as I seem to pick up every bug within a 100 km radius.
