Tuesday, August 25, 2020

Dammit, I'm Sick

      The reality is, I have been sick since at least last Thursday, and tried to ignore it.  I didn't want to be whiny, I had stuff to do, and surely it would pass on its own.  I mean, don't most minor ailments eventually succumb to the tincture of time?  Right?

      Maybe not this one.

      After feeling lousy Thursday, working despite chills and dizziness Friday and feeling worse Saturday (but still getting some housework done), I had a respite Sunday morning.  That's why I started on the shelves. Didn't feel too awful, wanted to get them in the house before the weather got hot and sticky again -- and they were in the way in the garage.

     The shelf work went slowly, with moments of confusion.  Early on, I started to mark the baseboard clearance cuts on the wrong side of the vertical that still needed them!  Caught myself, though not after making dark pencil marks all over it that had to be rubbed out with mineral spirits.  After that, I went more slowly and kept checking, and it all worked out.  Nevertheless, I was pretty well worn out by the end of the day.

      I was up frequently that night.  Monday was worse, nasty chills, dizziness, bloating and pain.  So I made notes about my symptoms, signed up for the "Teledoc" service my employer provides, eventually got through to a physician and, yes, it was just what I suspected.  The doctor called in a couple of prescriptions and I spent most of the day in bed.

      Up about every hour and a half last night; I made coffee and toast, took my pills, called in working-from-home and went back to bed until it was time to actually work.  Now here I am at lunchtime, feeling a little better but not much.

      Maybe next time I won't try to play the Stoic.  We've got better medicine than they had, and correspondingly less reason to grit one's teeth and endure an illness that can be readily treated.

1 comment:

Windy Wilson said...

Sometimes the Stoic approach is to acknowledge the situation, and go to bed. Ignoring that over the years has given me two hernias and a disc in the back that loves to pinch nerves.