Thursday, November 15, 2007

When the mighty fall.

Okay, so I’m not exactly mighty, but I don’t get sick. I really don’t. I get sick so infrequently (and by sick I mean chills, nausea, extreme fatigue, aches – believe me, I’ve had my fair share of the sniffles, and more than my fair share of migraines, but those don’t usually bring me to my knees)… anyway, I get sick so infrequently that I can remember almost every time:

There was the time when I was one of a 5-person committee making a multi-million dollar, 10-year contract decision for the university between the two major soft drink companies. One was presenting all morning, the other all afternoon. The presenters included the Canadian Presidents and VP’s and the set-up was elaborate and expensive. During the morning presentation, I started to feel a little shaky. At the break, I went to the washroom to splash my face and then immediately threw up. I excused myself two more times during the first presentation. One of the VP’s commented that I had the smallest bladder he had ever come across. Instead of doing lunch with the committee, I went to my car in the hotel parking lot and slept for an hour, thinking I just needed a little rest and I would be fine. During the afternoon presentation, I had to leave the room no less than 8 times. Yes, I kept going back in! I honestly thought that each time was the last time. After that, I was sick at home for the next three days.

Then there was the time that I was sick for 8 days straight, but never missed a full day of work. I dragged my butt in there everyday thinking I could just shake it off. Several times I fell asleep at my desk (luckily I was in an office with a door). Then, I would go back home at about 10:30 and sleep the rest of the day, only to repeat the madness the next day. I am not a heart surgeon. It really doesn’t matter that much if I skip a couple of days here and there to be sick.

In my first year of university, I missed my economics exam due to “acute influenza” (that’s what they wrote on my doctor’s note when I dragged myself in to infect the school health clinic’s entire waiting room). Do you know what you don’t want to do? Write an economics exam at the end of January when you learned all the material Sept-Nov.

I didn’t miss any school in elementary or high school for real illness. In elementary school, they would give out arm bars (little patches that my mom dutifully sewed onto a pillow for me) for things like winning sports teams you were on, citizenship, and yes, attendance. I got a lot of different badges every year (I was a total joiner), but always got the attendance badge. In high school I took some “sick days”, but they were really more mental health days.

As the human race goes, I’m fairly inexperienced with being sick. When I am sick, I’m fairly certain that’s it for me… that some super-bug has broken through my immunity barrier and will spell my demise.

So it was with my most recent bout of flu(?? – I’m assuming that’s what it was) I was certain I would die, Homer was making my final arrangements (not really, but he was more attentive than usual), the kids were learning to be self-sufficient. But, alas, I’m back. The bug has been banished, the sheets have been changed and I am catching up on everything I missed. Hopefully it will be several years before I have to deal with all that unpleasantness again.

12 comments:

Tess said...

I'm never sick either but I have had a nagging chest cold off and on for a couple of weeks now. It's seriously been YEARS since I even had a cold. And that's with a kid in daycare.

I've heard that this year is particularly bad for stuff "going around" and it certainly seems to be true in my neck of the woods.

bananafana said...

glad your feeling better! I'm not usually sick either but have been really tired and gross lately - everytime I walk in our front door my heart sinks because everything is a mess and I just have no energy for it. But, like you said the other day, K thinks he has been kicking butt on stuff because he is doing so much more than usual and I don't have the heart to tell him he's doing about an eighth of the normal workload in our house . I guess what I'm trying to say is have fun catching up - I can sympathize!

Christina Schmidt said...

I am glad to hear you are feeling well again. Being sick is horrid! This coming from me the queen of getting all illnesses available to man kind.

Since being around kids more the worst two things I have had was the stomach flu two years in a row... it brought me to my knees (both literally and figuratively...)

Glad you are back to the land of the living :)

Sara said...

I'm glad to hear you are better. Sadly, I spend much of the winter sick, every year. Just started my first Z-Pak actually. WOOHOO!

Amreen said...

oh no! sorry to hear you were not well! hope you're back on your feet now, and back to normal. Being sick is the worst, esp with kids...hope you got pampered a little.

email said...

Glad you're feeling better!

Misty said...

It is so hard being sick when you are the mama. Glad you are better. And here's to your wish: I also hope you don't feel that way again for YEARS.

Anonymous said...

Glad to hear you're feeling better, at least. I was sick a few weeks ago and it was miserable. I still haven't caught up on all the clean laundry sitting in baskets that needs to be folded (at least DH got it washed & dried, right?)

Welcome back to the world of the living!

Blog said...

Wow! I'm so glad you're feeling better! Sounds awful! I rarely get sick either, and when I do...it's brutal!

Family Adventure said...

I'm glad you are feeling better! That story about you and the Canadian VPs. Wow! Crazy! You were a trooper to hang in there!

Heidi

Mighty Morphin' Mama said...

Glad you are feeling better Lori, nice to have you back in the land of the living.

Beck said...

You poor thing.
I've always been REALLY sickly - bouts of pneumonia each winter, mostly - so my yearly wrestling with the stomach flu isn't that big of a shock. But it's still not FUN.