Sick Days 2

I've mentioned before that getting sick is a source of amusement for me, largely because of the kids and the reactions I get from people at work. Well, it looks like I underestimated just how much laughter illness can cause. Yup, the whole process of getting sick managed to generate some (mild) amusement.

First of all, my brother got a pretty bad case of strep throat, so he had to miss some time at work. He is also around kids quite a bit, so it's not uncommon for one of those "vectors of infection" he works with to get him sick in some way, shape, or form. In this case, he managed to contract a case of strep throat. His supervisor, however, was far more concerned about the work schedule than the fact that he had a really high fever and could not keep himself out of bed. She said she was going to make him come in later that day (to which he roughly said, "you're not understanding. I cannot come in to work today."), and then she insisted on a doctor's note when he did come back. Since this was all a legitimate illness, my brother did as he was told. So, when he showed up to work a day before the doctor said he should be at work, he handed his supervisor the doctor's note. The note had one slight modification: the return date was highlighted, as a gentle reminder that he was, in fact, legitimately sick.

Not too long after, I got really sick myself. I'm not entirely sure what I got, but late one morning at work, I realized I had a high fever accompanied with chills. This was not good. So, for the first time that I can remember, I came home early. I felt a little bit like a slacker, but there really wasn't much I could do about the situation other than rest up. Of course, the little kids were around at that time, so they immediately questioned my presence when I got home. I told them I felt sick, and that I needed to rest. However, since kids will be kids, they kept hounding me and they wanted to generally be around me. Well, since I couldn't get them to lower their own risk of infection, I figured I'd teach them something. I explained that I had a fever, then I let them touch my forehead so they could understand what that meant (I also figured it'd be useful for them to be able to recognize this in themselves later on). They thought it was a game more than anything else, since they were rubbing my forehead. I definitely chuckled that I managed to turn "man, I feel horrible" into a game for some munchkins. In hindsight, it was a really good thing I went home early, since it took me all weekend to recover.

Of course, when I went back to work I had a couple of people ask me how I was feeling. Luckily, I was much better by then. One coworker actually remarked that despite occasionally having to call in sick due to munchkin cooties, I didn't actually miss all that much time from work (take that, "I used to get one day colds on test days" guy). In fact, she went on to contrast my situation with one of the guys on her team, whose immune system is apparently on strike. She said that not only did he get sick, but when his kid got sick, the entire family got sick, quickly. It was like they all had non-functional immune systems, so they were constantly passing around viruses and bacteria to each other. Her description cracked me up, and I was glad to see that at the very least, I wasn't the worst apple in the bunch.

All in all, this whole getting sick thing can be pretty funny. I've also decided that I'm going to keep a highlighter handy, so that I can teach some munchkins how to rib your boss with a doctor's note. It might come in handy some day.