I am no stranger to colds and the flu. I get sick every now and again, and it leads to a surprising amount of laughter ("sick juice" still cracks me up). As I've said before, it's actually a minor miracle that I'm not sick more often than I am. I'm around kids quite a bit and I get up quite early on a regular basis. About the only things that would make me more prone to being sick would be getting old or having a compromised immune system. Luckily, neither of those two things have happened.
Regardless, I do keep myself armed with a box of tissue and some cold meds, just in case my body starts acting up during the middle of the day. Generally speaking, I just try to sleep it off. In some cases, that's all it takes. If I simply sleep in for three or four hours, that's often enough to get my sinuses to calm down and get my body back on track. In fact, I often spend the rest of the afternoon trying to be productive (i.e., getting some work done).
So, I think I've got a pretty good handle on how to deal with the illness when I get it. It's usually the process leading up to it that gives me problems. Like I said, I'm around munchkin-sized vectors of infection a lot.
Knowing this, I try to be good about avoiding the illness in the first place. After some cajoling from both nurses, doctors, and friends of mine, I have gotten the flu shot the last few years. One friend of mine actually laid a minor guilt trip on me, saying that it was more important that I get it, since I don't want to be responsible for getting any of the munchkins sick. Well, then. I'm also good about washing my hands and I even keep some cleaning wipes handy at my desk in case something spills. Like I said, I try to keep things more or less in order.
What this means, though, is that if I get sick, I don't generally know how or when I got it. I can usually take a guess, but I can't positively pinpoint it. I mean, if a munchkin has had a cold all week long, and I suddenly have a runny nose over the weekend, I have a decent idea of why I'm feeling that way. Even so, the virus might have taken a circuitous route through the kid's parents or my own parents. Or there might be multiple kids who currently have a runny nose; at that point, it's a crap shoot. Either way, I can't point to any one person and say, "I know it was you."
Not this time.
This time, I know exactly who got me sick. Hell, I know exactly when. I was at work on a Friday afternoon, and had to talk to a coworker of mine. Now, she'd actually been fighting something for most of the week, so I knew that she wasn't at the peak of her health. But at the same time, she was improving. I'd been in meetings with her all throughout the week, and nothing had happened. So I didn't think anything of stopping off at her cube to discuss something we needed to get done.
I kid you not, within about 30 seconds of stepping into that cube, I felt my nose start to tingle and my throat start to itch. From what everyone has been telling me, there's been something going around, and that's how it starts. The itchy throat has been the telltale sign. So, I knew right away that I was about to get sick. On a Friday afternoon. Talk about the worst possible timing. My plans for going on a long run or going to see any movies were shot, and I more or less knew it.
I held out hope on Friday evening, but I was starting to feel progressively worse. And when I woke up on Saturday morning, there was no doubting it. I had come down with a cold or a flu of some sort. Lovely.
Still, I'm not sure what to do with this knowledge that I knew who got me sick. It's not like I can publicly shame this person, that's more than a tad uncalled for. Part of me was tempted to poke fun about it, but I think she'd just feel bad more than anything else. So, to top it all off, I have this knowledge that I can't do anything about. For a guy who absolutely loves to put information to use (a la the air conditioned room tips), this is almost worse. I have to just sit on it.
Getting sick sucks.
Regardless, I do keep myself armed with a box of tissue and some cold meds, just in case my body starts acting up during the middle of the day. Generally speaking, I just try to sleep it off. In some cases, that's all it takes. If I simply sleep in for three or four hours, that's often enough to get my sinuses to calm down and get my body back on track. In fact, I often spend the rest of the afternoon trying to be productive (i.e., getting some work done).
So, I think I've got a pretty good handle on how to deal with the illness when I get it. It's usually the process leading up to it that gives me problems. Like I said, I'm around munchkin-sized vectors of infection a lot.
Knowing this, I try to be good about avoiding the illness in the first place. After some cajoling from both nurses, doctors, and friends of mine, I have gotten the flu shot the last few years. One friend of mine actually laid a minor guilt trip on me, saying that it was more important that I get it, since I don't want to be responsible for getting any of the munchkins sick. Well, then. I'm also good about washing my hands and I even keep some cleaning wipes handy at my desk in case something spills. Like I said, I try to keep things more or less in order.
What this means, though, is that if I get sick, I don't generally know how or when I got it. I can usually take a guess, but I can't positively pinpoint it. I mean, if a munchkin has had a cold all week long, and I suddenly have a runny nose over the weekend, I have a decent idea of why I'm feeling that way. Even so, the virus might have taken a circuitous route through the kid's parents or my own parents. Or there might be multiple kids who currently have a runny nose; at that point, it's a crap shoot. Either way, I can't point to any one person and say, "I know it was you."
Not this time.
This time, I know exactly who got me sick. Hell, I know exactly when. I was at work on a Friday afternoon, and had to talk to a coworker of mine. Now, she'd actually been fighting something for most of the week, so I knew that she wasn't at the peak of her health. But at the same time, she was improving. I'd been in meetings with her all throughout the week, and nothing had happened. So I didn't think anything of stopping off at her cube to discuss something we needed to get done.
I kid you not, within about 30 seconds of stepping into that cube, I felt my nose start to tingle and my throat start to itch. From what everyone has been telling me, there's been something going around, and that's how it starts. The itchy throat has been the telltale sign. So, I knew right away that I was about to get sick. On a Friday afternoon. Talk about the worst possible timing. My plans for going on a long run or going to see any movies were shot, and I more or less knew it.
I held out hope on Friday evening, but I was starting to feel progressively worse. And when I woke up on Saturday morning, there was no doubting it. I had come down with a cold or a flu of some sort. Lovely.
Still, I'm not sure what to do with this knowledge that I knew who got me sick. It's not like I can publicly shame this person, that's more than a tad uncalled for. Part of me was tempted to poke fun about it, but I think she'd just feel bad more than anything else. So, to top it all off, I have this knowledge that I can't do anything about. For a guy who absolutely loves to put information to use (a la the air conditioned room tips), this is almost worse. I have to just sit on it.
Getting sick sucks.
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