Effective tomorrow, I will have been sick for four straight weeks. This is the longest I have ever been ill in my life.
It came with the change of season. It came with construction people doing work on the roof and in the attic, stirring up dust and who knows what else. It came during the most stressful period of my adult working life so far. Every few days it's been something different—dry, violent cough gave way to all the signs of a sinus infection, and it's continued to migrate around my upper body so that I'm never sure whether I'm feeling better or just transitioning back to feeling worse elsewhere. For the last month, it's been a challenge to sing, it's hurt to laugh, and talking for extended periods has usually triggered coughing fits.
All I've wanted to do these past four weeks is plan for my choir trip to Europe (which requires BEING ABLE TO SING), take my mind off being sick with some funny shows on Netflix (which requires BEING ABLE TO LAUGH), and make up for lost time recording Mega Man 7 videos for YouTube (which requires BEING ABLE TO TALK). I am tired of the taste of phlegm and cough syrup. I haven't kissed my wife in four weeks. The first conversation I have with every person I see is about how bad I'm feeling today, which inevitably leads into a well-meaning lecture on all the medications I should be taking. I've seen two different doctors, been through a half-dozen different medicines for sickness and allergies, pumped myself full of fluids, worked from home, taken time off from work, gotten plenty of rest; heck, about the only thing I haven't done is get better.
I look at posts like these two and would like to say I'm getting by just fine in my current situation because I'm doing something about it, mentally or physically. But frankly this sickness is interfering with my ability to do everything I want and need, and both doctors doctors told me there's little to do about this illness but wait it out. So, my options are to wait patiently to get better as everything else in my life falls apart, or force myself to work on this endless string of urgent things when I really should be taking it easy, with the additional option of throwing all my money at over-the-counter remedies recommended to me by everyone I know, because ClariBenadNasonMuciSudaDelsyDimeTheraQuil is exactly the drug I need.
I'll tell you what I really need: I need to get better.
It came with the change of season. It came with construction people doing work on the roof and in the attic, stirring up dust and who knows what else. It came during the most stressful period of my adult working life so far. Every few days it's been something different—dry, violent cough gave way to all the signs of a sinus infection, and it's continued to migrate around my upper body so that I'm never sure whether I'm feeling better or just transitioning back to feeling worse elsewhere. For the last month, it's been a challenge to sing, it's hurt to laugh, and talking for extended periods has usually triggered coughing fits.
All I've wanted to do these past four weeks is plan for my choir trip to Europe (which requires BEING ABLE TO SING), take my mind off being sick with some funny shows on Netflix (which requires BEING ABLE TO LAUGH), and make up for lost time recording Mega Man 7 videos for YouTube (which requires BEING ABLE TO TALK). I am tired of the taste of phlegm and cough syrup. I haven't kissed my wife in four weeks. The first conversation I have with every person I see is about how bad I'm feeling today, which inevitably leads into a well-meaning lecture on all the medications I should be taking. I've seen two different doctors, been through a half-dozen different medicines for sickness and allergies, pumped myself full of fluids, worked from home, taken time off from work, gotten plenty of rest; heck, about the only thing I haven't done is get better.
I look at posts like these two and would like to say I'm getting by just fine in my current situation because I'm doing something about it, mentally or physically. But frankly this sickness is interfering with my ability to do everything I want and need, and both doctors doctors told me there's little to do about this illness but wait it out. So, my options are to wait patiently to get better as everything else in my life falls apart, or force myself to work on this endless string of urgent things when I really should be taking it easy, with the additional option of throwing all my money at over-the-counter remedies recommended to me by everyone I know, because ClariBenadNasonMuciSudaDelsyDimeTheraQuil is exactly the drug I need.
I'll tell you what I really need: I need to get better.
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