A friend saw me on a walk today and said, “You haven’t posted in a while!” And she is right. “Blame it on the weather and my bronchitis,” I responded, and we proceeded to share funny stories of unintended Italian lessons. Now granted, her newly needed vocabulary, some 30 years ago, was much more exotic, as she was preparing for a c-section delivery of her second child in northern Italy. Mine is much more mundane – that is, dealing with a cold, cough and eventual bronchitis.
I’m sure in my Italian classes with Giovanna we covered many of these words, but I probably wasn’t very interested. I do remember paying attention to “pronto soccorso” or emergency room, in the hope that we’d never have to visit one.
But here I am this year, three weeks in, with a new and unfortunately useful vocabulary:
I have a cold: Ho un raffreddore.
I have a bad cough and I cough a lot: Ho una brutta tosse e tossisco molto.
Every Italian friend we know has said the weather is the culprit. They suggested I visit the doctor who would prescribe antibiotics (antibiotici) and cortisone (cortisone). Hmmm…cortisone for bronchitis? Never heard of that combo before.
After visiting the doctor, he confirmed: “I have bronchitis.” Ho la bronchite.
He also asked the color of my phlegm, (flemma), but I’ll spare you the details, only to say that my extensive knowledge of Italian colors came in helpful.
The prescription was just as I had been told, antibiotics (amoxicillina) for 6 days; cortisone, which turned out to be prednisone (prednisone) for 5 days; and an awful tasting cough syrup (sciroppo per la tosse) 2-4 times daily. I did some research and found that short-term steroid therapy does help minimize inflammation within the bronchial tubes. Made sense to me.
©blogginginitaly.com
So, for the week I was on meds, I drank tons of water and tea, knocked back hot honey-lemon-ginger shots, skipped all vino, and did my best to stay out of places where I could spread my germs. Over the subsequent days, I began slowly improving, knowing that the bronchitis cough can last a while. And then came last Sunday, finally med free, so we went to Tuscher for lunch.
Being a true blooded Italian, my personal choice of “meds” was simple:
Chocolate banana cake with whipped cream (panna)
©blogginginitaly.com
delightfully washed down with vino rosso!
©blogginginitaly.com
Still not quite 100%, but getting closer every single day!
Ciao,
Judy
Blogging In Italy 