Health

I am the biggest wimp when I'm sick. It's a good thing that I'm generally pretty healthy, because if I was one of those people who had chronic health problems*, all my whining would drive away any and all my friends.

So I've had a cold this week. I first realized it Monday evening when it occurred to me that it hurt to swallow. That's never a good sign. That night I couldn't sleep because my throat hurt so much. I laid in bed wondering if this would be the time when I would finally need my tonsils out. (A doctor almost removed them when I was four, but then decided to let me keep them. I've been wishing ever since that he would have just taken them out; they've given me nothing but grief.)

I spent Tuesday living for the moment when I could take more Tylenol (not that it seemed to do much good, but I had to keep trying). And Tuesday night I couldn't sleep again, but it wasn't until Craig was leaving for work in the morning that I realized that my throat no longer hurt, the problem was now my sinuses, which were somehow managing to be in pain, stuffed up, drippy, but at the same time I couldn't blow my nose. Isn't that just the worst??? Add to that an occasional cough which would leave me gagging and struggling not to throw up, and you can understand why I was pretty miserable.

After even a hot shower couldn't fix anything, I decided that Wednesday needed to be a pajama day (which was too bad, because there were SO many other fun things I would have liked to do that day! Sorry to all of you who invited me to do things that I had to decline). So rather than doing anything fun or worthwhile, I sat around in my pajamas watching cartoons with the kids and trying to blow my nose. I felt like I was dying. (I wasn't exaggerating when I said that I'm a wimp when I'm sick!) When I went to bed last night, I finally broke down and used my secret weapon: nasal spray. I hate using it because if overused, your body will become dependent on it. And it just feels awful putting anything in your nose. But the stuff always works, and I figured the most important thing was to get some sleep, and in order to sleep I needed to be able to breathe.

Wow.

What a difference a good night's rest can make! I woke up this morning feeling alive and human again! I still have a stuffy nose and a bit of a cough, and I suspect that those will linger on for a couple more days. But today, those are just incidental. I feel okay again.

Hallelujah.

What about you? How do you handle being sick?



*I actually know a lot of people who do have chronic health problems, and I'm always amazed at their stoicism in the face of such adversity. Really, you guys are incredible. (And this includes Carla, who is not chronically sick, but did just have a bit of cancer removed from her mouth and throat and yet didn't begin screaming at me yesterday when I complained that I had a cold. I did at least acknowledge that her cancer was definitely way worse than my stupid cold and that I wasn't even trying to get sympathy from her. But if she would have wanted to scream at me despite that disclaimer, I couldn't have blamed her.)