I’m miserable: I have shaking chills, sore throat, a splitting headache, and the room is spinning, so I call my physician’s office for help and to hopefully be evaluated. I speak with the gatekeeper nurse, who asks the inevitable question: What is your temperature?
When I tell her it’s 98.6 F, she is not impressed.
I explain, exasperated, that since my baseline temp is 97.4 F, that 98.6 F is actually a fever for me. But it doesn’t matter. Game over. I haven’t reached the threshold, and apparently, I’m not sick. Or not sick enough.