A Relatively Ordinary Life

It happened. The dreaded illness while on vacation. It was meant to be 10 glorious days out of the office sitting on the beach and relaxing.

It started that way. Four no-humidity, bright-sunshine, perfect-temperature days. Underneath the 70 SPF sunscreen my skin was soaking in the rays. Just smelling the ocean and the variety of sunscreen scents on the beach was amazing.

And then it wasn’t.

I was kicked in the gut first with a headache, then no voice, a fever and the cough. My cough is never like anyone else’s. I sound like I am barking.

Of course I refused to go to the doctor there. I was okay. Except I wasn’t. The ability to drive home was a miracle.

And then to the doctor. Meds. X-rays. More meds. No sleep. And in all of this trying to get back to work because my glorious escape was over.

It’s been 16 days and I am still not back to normal. I’ve had my fill of juice, water, tea and please do not get me started about what is on TV during the day! I really think my brain shrunk (or maybe finally the congestion is fading away?).

Whatever happened to sick days like when we were kids? In my house, to get out of school we had to really be sick (no ‘mental health days’) running a fever was part of the deal. But that meant, homemade soup, snuggling on the couch, watching television (it was good back then). It meant doing everything possible to rest in order to get better. But as kids, we didn’t want to be down for that long and as soon as the fever broke, we bounced right back to life.

I miss those bouncing days.

I miss good television on sick days.

But most of all, I wonder, don’t adults get sick days?