Today I am sick. Coughing and coughing. I have to say it is at moments like these that I wish I had someone to take care of me. It might sound crazy to miss my Mother when I’m about to turn 35 but doesn’t everyone miss their mothers from time to time?
I think it is more than that. It is that sense of someone having your back and taking care of you when you are unwell. Most of us as adults, married or single, don’t have that. It is probably the part of childhood we all miss the most.
It makes sense when you think about it because we are taught to be independent and strong but when we are sick that facade is gone and we are back to being needy and in pain. Plus, I am usually very tired and worn out when I am sick.
I’m just grateful I don’t work in accounting any more so I can take the day off and get better. In accounting it didn’t matter how sick I was. I still had to work every day.
But I still do miss being taken care of. On my mission I used to have these fantasies about my Mother taking care of me. I was so tired and worn out the entire time that it was something I would dream about. Ha! Not that much has changed.
Can anyone relate to what I am talking about? Do you ever as an adult wish you could get taken care of?
Sorry I have let it go 5 days between posts. I’m never sure how that happens! At least this time I have an excuse. I’m afraid I have had a wicked virus and been quite sick. I don’t have the strongest immune system and it seems like every year or so I get a whopper of an illness. My whole family is not the strongest when it comes to our immune system. It is probably partly due to going 48 hours without sleep in New York City but it was worth it.
Some people are what I call high output people. They seem to be able to accomplish so much and do things like all nighters without it phasing them. I never could, even when I was in college. I’ve done all nighters by accident with my insomnia but that is a completely miserable experience and it is hard for me to function. What is amazing is people who can go, go, go without it wearing them down. I get sick every time. Oh well!
Luckily I have a job that I can easily do while sick and that’s a huge blessing. I also found a new doctor that is covered by my insurance and had a very positive experience. He prescribed me the biggest pills ever and seemed very attentive.
I did keep up my movie reviews so make sure to check out the movie blog including my review of the new Dreamworks film Home.I also have been doing some fun videos on the channel including a collaboration with an awesome youtuber from London and my favorite movies when I’m sick. If you aren’t subscribed to my movie blog and my channel please do. I think you will really enjoy the content and it will be worth your time.
So let’s hope I can kick this illness and be at the top of my game again. Hope you are all healthy and illness free.
Have you ever had a sick day? I don’t know if I have. Yes, I’ve certainly been sick and yes, I’ve taken sick days off of work but they aren’t really days off, and I don’t even have kids.
Yesterday was a good example. I woke up with a stomach ache and spent the morning emptying my stomach. I had emailed my boss to let him know I would be out for the day. I answered a few emails and then crashed for about 3 hours. I have never taken naps even when I was little (my poor Mom). Pretty much when I take a nap I know I am either sick or on a mission (only time in my life I took naps).
When I woke up I realized I had a notice on my email that estimated tax payments were due that day. I called my accountant but was having trouble reaching them. They had told me previously that they weren’t due until July which didn’t seem right but I was so busy with a new job that I shrugged it off.
Finally I was able to reach the secretary for the accountants and the two of us were able to go through all the figures and thankfully I could make the state and federal payments online. (The accountants got a piece of my mind don’t you worry!).
This took hours to figure out and the whole time I really just wanted to sleep. I hadn’t eaten anything all day but finally at about 8 pm I stomached some crackers and ginger ale. After watching 24 I fell asleep.
I wish I could have taken an entire day off to recover but it nearly always works out this way. I know I am not alone in this. In fact, I have it easier than you Mom and Dad’s who really never get a day off to recover. I guess it’s just being an adult.
I’ve always said the only time I miss my Mom is when I am sick. I’m a pretty independent person but to be taken care of like only a mother can is perhaps the best part of childhood. My roommate was kind to bring me some crackers but just nothing beats the sympathy and care of a mother for her daughter (even at 33 years old!).
At least with my new job hopefully the work distractions will be fewer. The downside to accounting is there are deadlines that don’t go away if someone is sick. Today 5 checks had to be written and it didn’t matter if I was recovering. The mail had to be gotten and a wire had to be written. This could not wait.
There are definitely deadlines with marketing but it seems to be a slower pace and be a little more flexible than accounting. I could be wrong but that’s just the vibe I’ve gotten so far.
I know some people have 9 to 5 jobs so when they are home they aren’t at work whether it is the end of the day or a sick day but I think a growing number of us telecommute which means there is no end to the work day, sick or not.
My favorite thing about my job is that I can telecommute. I am by no means complaining just talking about my life.
I guess what can be difficult is making sure you get better while still doing all the stuff that still has to be done. What strategies have you found to be helpful? How do you guys balance work and other demands? I’d be particularly interested in hearing from other telecommuters.
At least this was just a 24 hour bug and while I was a little tired today it wasn’t too bad. What was really rough was this last Christmas when I was sick as a dog and had to work the entire time. I’m sure that is why the illness stretched on for over 9 weeks. It was brutal.
So remember how I wrote about this being the ‘perfect Christmas’? Well, I had a feeling I was jinxing myself and I sure did. I had been dealing with a cough for a couple of weeks but then on Monday I really started to feel poorly. Enough so that I went to the doctor just in case it was an infection. Turns out it was a virus. No big surprise.
I was hoping it would just be a little thing but Tuesday (Christmas Eve) I wasn’t feeling great but I pushed through the day. My throat hurt and I just didn’t feel good. I got through the day and then stumbled home and crashed sleeping till 10 am. I felt pretty rotten but I went up to where my parents are staying and got my presents but I kept falling asleep (a bad sign. I never take naps unless I’m sick) and after about 12:30 I felt so bad I had to go home and spent the rest of Christmas Day in bed.
Then yesterday and today came with more time in bed and I still feel very rotten. I can’t talk, my throat hurts and I just feel awful. Thank you to my home teachers who gave me a blessing this morning and my friend Tanya who brought me dinner.
I hope this weekend I am able to improve. We will see. At least I have some time off work to heal.
Send out a prayer my way. Thanks. Thanks to my family for coming out here. I am soooo grateful to not be traveling with this sickness.
“Alas, the frailty is to blame, not we
For such as we are made of, such we be”
William Shakespeare Twelfth Night
So all week I’ve felt a cold coming on. I’ve had so much to do that I tried to ignore it. Getting back from a trip is stressful and there is still a great deal of work, cleaning and laundry to do. I haven’t even been up to the houses since I got back I’ve been so busy.
In an attempt to ward off illness I got a flu shot on Monday but sadly it was not the all-encompassing vaccination one hopes for because on Thursday I started to feel unwell. At first I thought it was just fatigue from all the training I’ve been doing. This Saturday (the 24th) I am swimming in my first swim meet in 13 years! I can’t wait! I am going to swim the 400, 200, and 50 free!
Unfortunately as Thursday went into Friday my sore throat got worse and my chest felt more congested. Nevertheless, I plowed through and did another swim Friday night. However, it was clear something was wrong because I could barely do a 200 m. My chest felt constricted and tight, like I couldn’t breath correctly. By the time I got home I felt the shivers and downright sick.
Yesterday I spent the entire day sleeping and resting and with some dayquil/nyquil got through the day. Luckily my sister Anna was already planning on using my apartment to cook her anniversary dinner with her boyfriend so she took care of me as well! She did my shopping and made me sushi. I tried to stay out of their hair but it was still nice to have the company.
Now today is Sunday and I am resting once again. I debated about going to the Urgent Care but I think I will wait and go to my regular doctor tomorrow if I am still not feeling well. I’m pretty sure it is just a lovely virus but its always worth checking if it goes on for multiple days. I just hope that it doesn’t keep me from training next week because I want to be ready for my swim meet. I also have limited time to prepare for my next open water swim Slam the Dam in Vegas on October 1st.
It’s a longer race (1.2 miles so longer by just a hair) so I need to train! Let’s just hope my body let’s me!
Sometimes I wish I had a stronger constitution- a body that withstood the virus’ and bacteria of the world. Sadly, it is not the case. If there is something going around I get it- and usually the more virulent strain of it. My entire family has somewhat weak constitutions, especially my brother who seems to always get unusual variations of an infection.
My cousin Julia never missed a single day of high school. Me on the other hand I was gone 1/3rd of the time. I just got sick more and my mother believed in keeping us home if we are sick. On a side note there is increasing evidence that we should all stay home when we are sick:
1. We are not productive employees when we are working sick. A recent study by the Harvard Business School shows that “Employers worry a lot about absenteeism, but new research suggests a bigger threat to productivity is “presenteeism”: sick workers who show up at work but are not fully functioning. U.S. companies may lose $150 billion (yes, that’s billion) annually because of presenteeism, according to some estimates.”
2. You are more likely to get sick from a co-worker/student that goes to work sick than most any other interaction. Think about it- you spend 8 hours a day in sometimes very close quarters with these people.
The New York Times says, “In a telephone survey of nearly 1,000 adults conducted by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, more than one-third of workers said they felt pressured to go to work when sick. About the same number reported that they had picked up the flu from a colleague in the workplace.”
“We work in a Dilbert environment these days,” said Brett Gorovsky, an analyst at Wolters Kluwer. “We’re in closed office spaces, where germs are a bigger concern. And there’s downsizing. There are fewer people to backfill now, so workers more often feel they have to show up.”
Recently in Utah there was a measles scare and the CDC had to remind everyone that if your child is sick keep them home. We are losing our herd immunity as a society because of those that chose to not vaccinate their children (that’s a topic for another entry. A topic I feel quite strongly about- immunize your kids!). This means we are all more susceptible to serious infections and can transport those infections to others. Even conditions like measles, whooping cough, and mumps that were at one time thought eradicated are springing up all over the place. If we ever get a truly deadly pandemic we will need to have developed the habit of isolating the sick or the effects will be terrible.
This movie looks really good but kind of freaks me out.
Again from New York Times, “In one case, more than 1,000 people were sickened with a gastrointestinal virus at a casino in Reno, Nev., in an outbreak that began with a few sick employees who said their supervisors had pressured them to go to work. The employees, mostly low wage earners, had little or no paid sick leave.”
3. Disease transmission aside, with rest you are more likely to recover quickly. I personally would rather have 1 or 2 days in bed than have 2 weeks of a lingering illness.
Anyway, if you are sick STAY HOME!
Today I will be following my own good advice and am sticking to my apartment. Here’s to hoping I feel better tomorrow!
Btw, the only time I wish I didn’t live alone is when I am sick but I think that is mostly because I wish for someone to complain to and someone to do my shopping. One time I told my sister “I wish I was married and could have someone to take care of me when I am sick”. She said “Well, that really doesn’t happen when you are married. What you want is a mother”. It’s true.
I guess that’s proof that no matter how independent we feel, each of us at one point or another yearns for our mothers…
Today I am sick. Coughing and coughing. I have to say it is at moments like these that I wish I had someone to take care of me. It might sound crazy to miss my Mother when I’m about to turn 35 but doesn’t everyone miss their mothers from time to time?
Rachel's Musings 