Friday, April 14, 2006

100 Days Cough


I've had a cough now on and off for a month or so, which is quite annoying. I got it from my husband who suffered for a couple of months himself before he got better. Doctor Yasu tells me that he tested himself and what he had is called "hyakunichi zeki" in Japanese, which I think is a lovely name for it. It means "100 days cough" if you translate it literally. I hope he's right, although I hadn't heard of adults getting it, and I'm not exactly barking (in that sense). Hopefully nothing more sinister, as my mother-in -law, the queen of medical doom, would like to have it. Medically we call it "pertussis" in English.
I knew what the common name for that is in English, but just to make sure, I looked up my trusty electronic dictionary just now. A rare typo, but a good one. Under "百日咳”, it says "whopping cough"!

I suppose it is really!