#76. Basal Pneumonia, Midterms, and Linsanity (Friday, February 17, 2012)

#76. Basal Pneumonia, Midterms, and Linsanity (Friday, February 17, 2012)

What was your best day…of finally being recovered from an illness?

If there’s one thing I’ve been particularly lucky with throughout my life, it’s been my health. During my college years, in particular, despite doing very little to take care of myself properly, I only set foot in the University Health Services once – and it was in my last semester there.

That time it was actually kind of serious. I had what seemed like a cold for a week, which was starting to get better – until it didn’t and I started coughing up blood. So I feared I had tuberculosis, and quickly made an appointment. Long story short: I did a bunch of X-rays, turned out I had basal pneumonia (caught from suitemate’s father via healthy suitemate), and I was prescribed antibiotics.

I started feeling better just in time for midterm week, which ended up being the hardest week I ever studied outside of that year’s finals (#92).

And right after the last midterm on Friday, I spontaneously went for drinks with my classmate Aaron (the first time I ever spontaneously went for drinks with someone1), who taught me how to pour a pitcher of beer without leaving any head2. A skill that turns out to be much more useful than anything from that financial statement analysis test I just took.

I didn’t drink too much, because right after I had my final checkup with the doctor. But despite having three pints in me, I was cleared of everything.

With those hellish past three weeks now officially done and Reading Week3 coming up, it all just felt like a perfect convergence of relief.

And when I walked into our suite, Kurt Huang (#106) and my other suitemates were all pretty relieved as well. Apparently, me coming home long past midnight from the library every night had led them to believe that I had died from my illness. 

“So Kurt, anything new going on around here?”

“Well, besides you completely disappearing for the last five days, nothing.”

With that sorted out, that night I joined Kurt and a few other buddies in watching the Knicks-Hornets basketball game. Keep in mind, this was at the height of Linsanity, especially in Toronto where Lin had hit a last-second three to beat the Raptors a few days before4, so this was must-watch TV for all of us.

Side Note: Long story short, Jeremy Lin was this unheralded third-string basketball player (from Harvard) who in the span of the past two weeks, had fallen into a starting spot with the New York Knicks and since them led them to a seven-game winning streak where he was averaging 20-plus points a night. Of particular insanity because he was the first ever Asian-American player to make any kind of mark in the NBA.

The Knicks lost, for the first time since Jeremy Lin became a starter; and everyone was pretty disappointed. But Kurt was especially livid, demanding to know “who was responsible for this”.5

Me, I was just happy to be schoolwork- and pneumonia-free going into a nine-day break.

  1. And 6th time having drinks ever, if you’re counting (#106).
  2. That foamy residue (and waste of perfectly good beer) that settles at the top of your glass if you don’t pour it right: i.e., at an angle like Aaron showed me.
  3. Spring Break for Canadian colleges.
  4. Hearing the loudness of the cheers from that shot, at the Raptors home arena, was probably my most embarrassing moment ever as a Raptors fan.
  5. That, and our wasting our St. Patrick’s Day (#106), were the only two times I ever saw him angry.