Sinusitis

A little confused, but mostly amazed, I look at the large drop that hits the tabletop in front of me from a height of around thirty centimetres. It has spread out in a circle on the table. Small spikes stick out at the edge, just like the fractals of Benoît Mandelbrot's apple man from the 1980s. Mandelbrot made mathematical chaos visible on a computer for the first time. In my early days in computer technology, I was enthusiastic about this formula, in which I found order in chaos. Another drop joins the first and drags me back to the present.

Apple man

It's amazing how much fluid can be hidden in a frontal sinus. In humans, the frontal sinus has a volume of six to seven milliliters. I am almost certain that a CT scan would reveal a much larger one in my case. But the paranasal sinuses (sinus paranasales), the ethmoid sinuses (sinus ethmoidalis) and, last but not least, the nasal cavity itself (cavitas nasi) are also affected, so it adds up to quite a lot. The feeling of pressure, which causes pain in the area of the forehead, eyes and jaw, shows that there must be something worth preserving around the cavity in my case. The mucus is so fluid that it is more like water. Unfortunately, it doesn't matter, as an enormous amount of pressure builds up anyway, so I'm afraid of messing up the ceiling in our low Katinka with a headroom of only 1.90 meters. But that wouldn't matter because I wouldn't be able to see the mess. 

Zn+1 = Zn² + C

Speaking of mess: Gaby says I should clean it off the table. So I take a handkerchief and wipe away the two drops and spray a little disinfectant on top to reinforce the hospital atmosphere, at least for the healthy part of the crew. I stick two paper tissues in my nostrils to stop it constantly dripping out of my orifices. This gives me the chance to think about my condition and not be constantly busy blowing my nose. What I don't understand as a medical layman is why the cranial cavity (cavitas cranii) always has to be affected as well. Unfortunately, even paracetamol only helps to a limited extent, so I wonder why there is such crap at all. I still come from the generation that simply called something like this a cold. Gaby thinks it's another man flu and the doctor simply calls it sinusitis. But nowadays it's more likely to be called corona. I separate myself properly and stay away from the social life of the boat people for the time being. That hits me pretty hard, because I'm more of a sociable type. I also don't know how much longer I'll be doing it because I read in the newspaper that the brain ages by 20 years with every corona infection. That means I should be 102 years old by now, which gave me the idea of submitting an urgent application for a German pension. As proof, I enclosed the cotton swabs with brain substrate kept by the corona tests and a copy of the newspaper article with my application. The only problem is that this corona test is only accepted by the pandemic recognizers. I'm afraid that the German Pension Insurance is riddled with corona deniers, which would work against my urgent application. On the other hand, I don't want to deal with such trivialities right now. So I swap the nasal tissues, which are now dripping again, and add another paracetamol. Good luck to the kidneys and digestive tract. But even that is rather unimportant now. It's important to drink a lot so that everything stays liquid and can run out. Although my nose already looks like that of Rudolf the reindeer, I continue to blow it bravely. After three days, the pressure in my skull eases and I don't break out in a sweat every time I move. The taste of food is still overrated for me and I still need a few rest periods during the day, but I'm on the road to recovery.

Chaos is flourishing

You can look at it however you like, but nature knows no mercy. So she turns Gaby into a man. You could argue that male flu only affects men, but who knows who is a man or a woman these days? And what do those who are neither get? If this pandemic has left anything positive behind, it's the term “corona”. Gaby can also fall ill with it. And if it is a man flu after all, I'll probably have to live with a Gabriel in future. Which brings us back to Mandelbrot's brilliant chaos theory, with his apple men and women and a drop on a tabletop.

All readers stay healthy and always fair winds. Keep a stiff upper lip.