Saturday, December 19, 2015

Being Sick Sucks

Now that was a day ... and a night ... and this morning is no hell, either.
I've made it home and am sitting up, waiting for coffee to brew, in hopes it will ease my neck.
Maybe I should back up.

Fridays are always busy at our office, as they are the day we have to get the paper together and send it off to the press. No dilly-dallying around on Fridays! All hands on deck!

And this Friday we were putting out the last issue of the year, which includes an extra 24-page Christmas supplement. So twice the pressure, you'd think, although we'd been working ahead on the supplement so were sitting pretty. Fridays are actually my favourite day at the office; I seem to like that little bit of pressure, or maybe I just like getting things wrapped up at the end of the week.

I was at my desk by 8:30. There, but not feeling good, and hoping that by getting my mind off the discomfort, it might go away on its own. Sometimes it does. Yesterday it didn't. By 10 I had taken a pill and was throwing up as unobtrusively as possible in the bathroom, and by 10:30 Alison was asking if I was all right (I must've looked bad) and suggesting I go home. I took her advice and went back to Everett's, where I'd spent the usual Thursday night after watching Torchwood and Doctor Who with my boy.

My expectations were that I'd lie down after taking that pill and in an hour or two I'd be able to go back to the office and do my part. It wasn't the day to be sick. But no. Even taking another pill a few hours later didn't do the trick. I was disappointed, and pissed off that I couldn't be at work. It was a long day of nausea and vomiting, and a long night of an aching neck. The nausea was over last night by 10:30, thank goodness, but the neck still hasn't settled down.

The thing is, when it feels this way, I just want to sleep, to escape the pain of it. But after being in bed so many hours, that is even worse for the neck. It's quite the dilemma! You're between the proverbial rock and hard place.

So what to do? I'm sitting here trying to keep my mind off my neck by clickety-clacking on the keyboard here. I'm sipping the coffee now. I'm hoping for a day free of discomfort. I'm feeling positive that will be the case. And if it isn't, at least I'm home.

Not that Everett didn't take care of me when he got home from work yesterday. He went to the store and bought crackers and gingerale, at my request. The crackers didn't stay down but eventually the gingerale did, so I'm not dehydrated. I should be starving, but am not.

What a way to start the Christmas holiday!

Update, two hours later:
Coffee and toast didn't work the wonders I'd hoped for yesterday, but coffee and a little oatmeal this morning have put me right back to normal. Why? You tell me. I have no idea.  (Scott says I don't eat enough, or the right things.)

I'm just thankful. Exhausted (how can that be, after 22 hours in bed?), but otherwise feeling fine. Think I'll take a bath and head to town later, as I left a stack of new library books at the office, assuming I'd be back in a couple hours, and there's a poinsettia on my desk that needs to come home with me. Before leaving town this morning I drove past the office, thinking I'd go in and get them, but just couldn't do it... feeling that crappy.

Bodies. Who can figure them out? I sure can't. I'm glad mine is usually feeling fine, and the occasional off day? Well ... what can you do. I'm better off than many, and my heart goes out to them. Being sick sucks.

6 comments:

  1. I hate being sick and am thankful that I rarely am.

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  2. Whenever I'm sick I remember a promise I made to myself when I was in a hospital bed, having just survived peritonitis and a ruptured appendix and just dying to be part of the human race again and saying, "Anytime you're sick again, just think about here and all the sick people incarcerated and just be grateful."

    it helps.

    Glad you got over it quickly!

    XO
    WWW

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  3. I'm a strong believer in the body being able to influence the brain, and vice-versa. I used to always get sick if I took a surreptitious sick day off work; no reading, no sneaking off to a boozy lunch. These days though, I'm not sick often but my balance is so off that I look like I've been out for a boozy lunch when I'm walking to the store or out with the kids. Hope you're entirely better soon.

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    Replies
    1. I've been trying to figure out how I might be creating these "neck things" for 26 years, and still haven't. Now I often wake up with them, and it's a crapshoot whether they'll go away without medication. I've done regular chiropractic for a year, I've done regular massage for a year, I've done regular shiatsu for a year ... none seem to make much difference. Hatha yoga doesn't alleviate it. Doctors don't help. Food and drink don't always make a difference; sometimes eating does. It's frustrating. Next: physiotherapy?

      I hope you get a handle on that balance thing soon, Lorna; I hate the thought of a fall.

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