Sick Again

chicken noodle soup
photo via smittenkitchen

Despite being sick just 3 months ago, I came down hard and fast with something nasty the day before yesterday. I felt just fine all through the weekend. Went to work with a sore throat on Tuesday and, after a couple of hours of trying to tough it out, I decided to go home. Got takeout pho (3-star rating can suck it, this pho is delicious) on the way home, gargled salt-water (read: sounded like chewbacca taking a shit) for 15 minutes, did a bunch of work, but by 3 o'clock I could not concentrate.

I was shivering under all the blankets I own + warm laptop + two very warm cats. By 5 PM, I was totally convinced my brain was boiling inside my head (too much House?), I wasn't going to make it to see the sunrise. All that was left for me to do was throw up and die. Around 7, my friend showed up with NyQuil and aspirin. He helped me move to the bed. I cried and fell asleep.

I didn't even brush my teeth!

Woke up at 9 AM the next day, and felt incredible. It might have just been the delta between completely shit-tastic and normal, but I felt like I could run up Mt. Everest wearing shorts, t-shirt, and my toe-shoes. I'm super glad this sickness didn't linger for too long. I don't think I've ever had it this bad and this fast, but I have to say, I prefer it to feeling general malaise all week.

I still have some cleanup work to do. Actually looking forward to washing all my sheets in hot water and airing out the comforter in the clean cold air tomorrow.

Did you get sick this season? Here are some tips I'm bookmarking for the next time I get sick. Is it weird that I'm looking forward to getting sick so I can re-watch all my favorite Wes Anderson movies? (Just kidding.)

Comments

  1. First! (Surprise!) I'm glad you didn't die, and that it was quick, and I hope you have sufficient brain cells left. I'm pretty sure we come with extra. Are you getting enough sleep on these wild weekends of jet-set partying? Did you get a flu shot? (I seem to recall a fear of needles typical of control freaks :P). Will this teach you to?

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    1. Definitely not getting enough sleep. And I did not get the flu shot. I think the fear of spiky things (e.g., needles) is typical of all living beings, no?

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  2. Are you rejecting Dr. Kevin diagnosing and labeling you? ;) I gotta tease you about something. Plus, wanting to be in control is a better attribute than its alternative, but I will defer to the correction of those who know you well as to whether it describes you. I certainly didn't mean the Wikipedia definition of "control freak" which I just checked. :)

    But no, I don't think any pronounced fear of needles is a simple animalistic instinct for survival rather than an irrational phobia. I don't know the proportions of the general population, but I certainly have no fear or dread, or even concern, about getting a simple shot, or having blood drawn, or even getting an IV. One mental test you might try on yourself is to ask whether it would bother you for you yourself to prick yourself fairly painlessly with a tiny needle on your finger to draw a drop of blood (assuming blood doesn't weird you out too). Now change the scenario so that a professional nurse you don't know is doing it. Does it become scarier? If so, that's not the needle, that's you not being in control. < /amateur_psychoanalysis>

    Nothing wrong with that, it springs from a desire to be safe, and everybody want safety.

    Now, a fear of four legged creatures with biting jaws filled with sharp teeth is a completely normal product of the reptilian brain. http://goo.gl/nhi7a

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    1. Blood does weird me out also. While I agree that somebody else (a nurse) coming at me with a needle freaks me out more, I am certainly far from OK pricking myself, or anybody else for that matter, with a needle.

      I accidentally hurt myself all the time. (Most times far worse than a needle prick.) I shake it off, it doesn't bother me at all. I think it's the anticipation of pain that kills me. I agonize about it for days. It's really annoying, but I feel like it's totally normal to freak out over an appointed time when I'm going to drive myself to a person who is going to intentionally hurt me.

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    2. Haha, well when you put it that way. Do you glare resentfully at the person intentionally hurting you like the cats glare at you when you intentionally torture them by taking them to the vet? (rhetorical question :P )

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