What it’s like during the malady

“Well, what does that doctor say?”
“He said that as long as I’m convalescing, I need to be very careful.”
“At least the gentleman said it would turn your Spanish disease into a convalescent. What’s new about the disease then again? Isn’t that contagious?”
(OK, I’ve surely botched the wordplay here, but it’s clearly about “convalescence” as medical neologism.)
(Tuulispää, Helsinki, 1918)