Sick, Sick, Sick
I have been sick, sick, sick since Friday night. I left work feeling the fingertips of a cold creeping up the back of my throat and nose. Saturday morning I woke up to Aidan yelling for me to get him at 8am and I wondered what I did to be punished like this. That’s how bad I felt. My nose was stuffy and runny at the same time, I had an unforgiving cough and the body aches were indescribable.
At 10am I thought to myself, “Is it time for Aidan’s nap yet?!” His naptime is at 3pm every day, so you can understand how depressed I was to realize that I had to make it through 5 more hours of baby-play before I could get a break. But once his head hit the crib, mine hit my bed and we were both out for 3 1/2 hours. I woke up so stiff I could barely move. I continued to take the daily allotment of dayquil and pound water like I never had before in an attempt to flush the cold from my system.
By Sunday morning, I had less aches all over, but could not stop sneezing. Aidan was up again at 8am (so unlike him) – I had to suck it up and make it through the first half of the day. Since it was Super Bowl Sunday, I prepped Chicken & Noodle (very gravy-like stew) per Ryan’s request, along with some chocolate fudge pudding for dessert. We watched the game and enjoyed the food. I continued to struggle with the stuffy feeling of a head cold until 10:30pm when I realized that I just couldn’t go to work the next day. I showed no signs of feeling better by 7am the next day (which is the time I have to leave each morning in order to get to work by 8:30am) so I emailed my boss and let her know that she should not expect me at work in the morning.
Monday was odd because I felt ok. I forced myself to sleep until 9:30am and then proceeded to watch the worst daytime television while barricaded in my room. I ended up getting antsy and started to clean the shower, then the toilets, then vacuumed the rug and mopped the floor. I made dinner and timed it for Ryan’s return from coaching soccer practice after work and it felt like a good night. I took my last dose of dayquil and suddenly got very chilly and my hands got the shakes. I had to step outside to catch my breath – it was very unexpected. I decided to lay off the nyquil, take some cough syrup instead and hit the sack.
Tuesday morning I woke up at 6am and though, ok – I can go to work today. Then at 7am I thought I was in the long process of dying. It hurt to sit up, stand upright and lie down. My cough was uncontrollable and my head was so stuffed up that I lost my breath after unloading the dishwasher. I was haunted by cold sweats and just couldn’t shake the sick feeling resonating throughout my entire body. Nothing I did worked. I went back to bed until noon.
Today, Wednesday, I took the liberty of tacking on a third sick day from work and here I am, enjoying one last day to get my strength back. Honestly, I don’t know how I will feel tomorrow, but I switched my meds up a bit and am planning on going into work tomorrow. I feel OK at the moment. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.
