wherein Liz is ill (bleh)

[edenfalling]

The cold arrived and duly laid me out overnight. I don't bother taking my temperature very often (though one day I really ought to establish my base temperature, since I have long suspected it's lower than 98.6), but when you alternate between frozen to the bone and sweating buckets, repeatedly, and you have changed neither your thermostat nor your blanket coverage in the meantime, clearly something has gone wrong in your body's ability to regulate its own internal temperature... and/or your immune system is deliberately fucking around in an attempt to squish viral intruders. :-/ Also it hurt to swallow -- like trying to move my throat around a pressure blockage made of ever-so-slightly blunted razors -- all my joints ached, and I had that lead-weight exhaustion thing going on. Plus some sniffles and a runny nose, though those were the least of my problems.

So I swapped shifts with Lemme-Tell-Ya. He covered Monday for me, and I will cover Saturday for him.

Then I slept a lot. I didn't get up until 1:30pm, after which I showered, ate breakfast, and went to the grocery store to buy more juice and tissues (fortunately I was already well-supplied with NyQuil). Then I slept again from 5pm to 8pm, after which I made a pot of tea and had some bread and butter while doing more background reading for Yuletide. In a bit I will heat up some Campbell's chicken noodle soup for dinner, and I expect I will go to bed around midnight so as to get at least ten hours of sleep before I need to head in to the smoke shop tomorrow.

I probably could have forced myself to work today, if absolutely necessary, but I have found over the years that if I call in sick on the first day of a cold and do my best to sleep it into the ground, I lessen both the awfulness and the duration of the subsequent illness. If I try to "tough it out," I just make myself sicker for longer.

That is, incidentally, the one point on which my sister and I were ever able to play one parent against the other when we were kids. On all other issues, they either agreed beforehand or explicitly supported what the other had decided, but if we were sick and wanted to stay home from school, we went to Dad, not Mom. Mom was a firm believer in "toughing it out," but Dad was an equally firm believer that that was counterproductive in the long run.

Based on my own experiences? Sorry, Mom; the evidence supports Dad.

Comments

[branchandroot]

Blech, a sore throat like that sucks! But it's surely getting to be that season. I'm popping my vitamins like crazy to ward off the campus crud, already. *thinks well-thoughts for you*

[edenfalling]

It's definitely getting to be that season. I need to get a flu shot soon -- I was actually planning to try for one at Target on Saturday, but that's obviously not going to happen. Maybe next week!

*thinks healthy thoughts back in your direction*

[heliopausa]

I'm with you and your Dad. Rest, and lots of hot lemon/garlic/ginger/honey drink, if possible. Lots of liquids, anyway. :) Best wishes for your emerging totally healthy very soon.

[edenfalling]

My prescription is sleep, fruit juice, chicken noodle soup, and tea. Lather, rinse, repeat. :-) So far, it seems to be working -- I still feel cruddy, but I got through work today without any crises, and I expect I will continue to feel better tomorrow.

[akatsuki210.livejournal.com]

I hope you feel better soon! And if you have a sore throat, hot tea may help (particularly with honey). I always like tea, but I drink stupid amounts of it when I'm sick, and I always put a little honey in.

[edenfalling]

Thanks, I already feel less awful than yesterday. :-)

I drink tea most days at work already, because caffeine is a beautiful drug, but when I'm sick I also drink more -- I had a whole pot yesterday, with stupid amounts of honey just to make sure I could taste any of it at all.