Reflections on Being Sick

I haven’t been sick in a while (lucky me) but this past week-end, I was really, really sick. Clearly it was a virus (self-diagnosed) and it ran its course in roughly 48 hours but during those two days, it certainly made me miserable!

It started with a headache. I don’t get headaches often, although, I’ve noticed that I get them certainly more frequently than in previous years. My head began to throb just above the right temple around 5 PM on Friday (just in time for a few days off, naturally!).

Hubby and I had an appointment that evening – not necessarily one we were looking forward to, but nonetheless, a commitment we felt we needed to honor. It was an evening that seemed endless and as it wore on, my headache crept from tinker’s hammer to carpenter’s hammer to sledge hammer in the course of about 3 hours. By the time we got home, I was eager to be horizontal and unconscious. Even food wasn’t high on my wish list but I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich just before I crashed for the night.

Saturday was a complete bust. The headache was back. I managed to be up, out of bed, for roughly two hours during which time I ate a scrambled egg and some bread, drank some tea and watched the news. By 10 AM I was back in bed, mainly moaning about the headache again. Hubby brought me an ice pack which enabled me to get back to sleep. On and off, I slept, watched television, played with Nutmeg, the cat who kept vigil on the bed with me, and groaned (as if groaning would make me feel better!).

Around 5:30 PM I took an Alka-seltzer-like product (a no-name, generic product) and decided to see if a shower would help. I turned up the hot water in the shower, downed the bubbling cool liquid and stepped into the refreshing water in the hope of curing all my ills. Within three minutes, I threw-up everything I’d eaten all day. Then, shortly after the shower, the stomach cramps and diarrhea began. I was clearly in for a long night.

Up several times in the night, Saturday blurred into Sunday and I tried to rouse myself for the morning talk shows and newspaper – alas, no luck. I managed a cup of tea and went back to bed. The headache had returned. Hubby went to his work-out around 11 AM. I never missed him; I was dead to the world.

On Sunday afternoon, Hubby came back to the bedside (it must have been around 2 PM) and asked if I wanted anything. We’d just received a beautiful shipment of Florida oranges from a neighbor who snowbirds there. I asked him for some fresh-squeezed juice and, in his most loving manner, he made my wish, his command. Within minutes a fresh ice pack and 10 ounces of fresh Florida orange juice were brought to my room. The juice was amazing! The ice pack was even better. I fell back to sleep.

Sometime after 6 PM I awoke feeling strangely human. I got up. Hmmm…no headache, even vertical! I found my robe and wondered downstairs. Hubby was caught up in television news and gin on ice. I had some water. It felt good. I was hungry (and quite surprised to discover that) and so I contemplated what to eat. I figured it had to be bland. So, feeling quite domestic, I boiled some water and cooked some high-fiber pasta. This plus a teaspoon of butter would be my first experimental meal. If it stayed down, maybe the worst was over.

I managed to stay “up” until 8 PM but tired go the best of me, so I went back to bed. Hubby came to bed around 9:30 PM and neither of us felt the need to watch the late news so we drifted off to sleep. I awoke around 1 AM for a bathroom run. It was not as “urgent” as those of the previous night. I woke again at 3:30 AM with a strange feeling that something had changed. I sat up (displacing the cat who believes she has all rights reserved to the slice of bed between my body and the bed’s edge). Hmmm…no headache, that was nice! I ambled to the bathroom, this time just to pee. Then, back to bed, hopefully for a bit more sleep.

This morning at 7 AM the alarm went off and I sat up (no cat this time) to find myself essentially well. Amazing! Fortunately, I had the day off and could use my Monday to make up for a lot of lost time since Friday evening. A virus, no doubt! Well timed, I thought. Just long enough to rip off my week-end.

Oh well, the clear head and calm stomach felt so good, I went downstairs, made coffee, squeezed fresh juice (enough for hubby and myself) and reveled in the new-found health of the morning. It was raining outside. The television news was full of sad stories and unhappy circumstances across the world. I sat there sipping my juice and thought, “what a splendid day!”