Physician, heal thyself

Well, I may be learning lots about medicine and doing pretty well at it, but it seems I can't even keep myself healthy.
I came down with a bad cold/cough/sore throat this weekend and it's been three days and it still isn't gone. Since I'm working in the hospital tomorrow I'm desperately trying to get over it so that I'm not contagious anymore. I'm not sure exactly how it started: sleeping in the same bed as my sister who was hacking and sneezing and snotting for a week? Drinking way way too much coke? Staying up late and then getting up really early?
At any rate, armed with all my new-found knowledge about drugs and diseases, I decided to treat myself. The night before last I thought, clever Heather, I'll show everyone and I'll get rid of this thing in one night. I swallowed triple the dosage of vitamin C to boost my immune system. I took a Sudafed (nasal decongestant) and I sprayed double the dosage of this nasal corticosteroid into my nostrils. (I didn't really intend to use double the dosage but I don't have a lot of experience spraying things in my nose).
Well, I slept like a baby, but I woke up the next morning feeling like a truck had run over me. Yesterday I sneezed my way through the whole day and decided to boost my immune system by going for a brisk walk. I bundled up (except for my flipflops, of course) and marched around for a while in the freezing fog. Oh my, what a silly idea. Today I feel even worse.
The one thing about an infection is that it can't be rushed. Sure, you can take medications to manage the symptoms or try to kill the bacteria, but all of it is really just encouraging your own body to mobilize it's defenses and kick that bug out. You can't rush it, it takes its own sweet time and goes away when it wants.
I'm not a patient person by nature. I admit to being very intrigued by some of the concepts in the movie 'The Matrix'. What if I could just get a little chip implanted into my brain that would give me four years worth of medical knowledge or a new foreign language or a perfect understanding of car engines? What if I could swallow a pill that would instantly make me a superb volleyball player or talented cook or be able to do my own taxes with a swipe of a pencil? Would I go for the chip? I've always said yes, of course.
But the more I think about it, the more I realize it might be a really bad idea. You see, it's not so much the body of knowledge specific to that one thing that we need. It's all the peripheral knowledge/wisdom that is acquired along the journey. For example, if I just had 'Advanced French' implanted into my brain I would have missed all the wonderfully fun times of trying to speak with native French speakers and making entertaining mistakes and laughing at it together. I would have missed the discipline it built in me as I persevered by studying every day until I'd mastered a certain level.
If I just had four years of medical school implanted in my brain, I might save a lot of money and effort, but I would miss out on the other important lessons I have to learn along the way. For example, I already would have missed the most important thing I learned when I was in Antigua: I cannot survive as a Christian on my own; God has always intended to reveal himself through the church, and I am only a powerful witness to the world to the extent that I am a part of the body of Christ. Lone rangers are dead rangers.
You see, I learned that because I was desperately alone and in need of encouragement, accountability and support. I didn't miss it until I didn't have it. Some things you just can't rush, you just can't take a pill for, you just can't force them.
Which is why I decided today not to rush this silly cold. I'm just going to relax. Perhaps God has something important he wants me to learn along the way. I will let this cold take it's own sweet time, even if it kills me.