Another Day of Being Sick

Yes, Day # 3 of calling off from work, which meant that this was also the third day of basically lying around at home.

The first day, I slept and slept and slept. My girlfriend was telling me yesterday, smiling, that I was really out of it. Just slept through everything, presumably even when she passed, including taking the dog out for a walk, which is something that always wakes me up otherwise.

Not then.

Yesterday, I took another enormous nap of around for hours, and then felt sluggish for the rest of the day. There were positive signs, although the coughing and the headaches remained, as did that feeling that my arms and legs weighed 100 lbs each. I was tired initially after the nap, and felt as if I could have slept another several hours. Yet, there I was at 10:45 pm, trying to get some sleep, having been awake for almost 12 hours or so. Tired though I was, it was not sleepiness, and actual sleep did not come to me easily.

Eventually, it did come. It was not the best night's sleep, yet there are some mixed signs right now, as well. Some positive, some not so much.

The positive is that I feel much more energetic. My arms feel okay, although my legs feel unusually weak and wobbly. My ribs still hurt, but it is only a dull echo compared to how they felt yesterday, particularly after one episode where I dry heaved (not to get too graphic, but yes, that was the cause, as I now recall). The same thing happened today, yet it was not as pronounced.

Still, I find myself fluctuating in temperature, feeling warm and then feeling chilly and then feeling warm again, over and over again. I take off my socks, but that is not enough. So, I take off my sweatshirt, perhaps try my shorts, but before long, it feels cold. So, I wrap a blanket around me, but it is not enough. So, I give in, knowing soon that putting on extra layers will feel excessive, because it will translate to feeling too warm.

And sure enough, that is what happens. The cycle keeps going and going like that. It is a bit annoying.

I have called off from three work shifts, which is a lot. And it has left me with something that, admittedly, has become a rarity in my life as of late: free time.

True, I cannot use this time to go climbing a mountain, or even taking a more modest hike. Truth be told, with how dizzy I have felt these last few days, I'm not sure when the next hike will be. Hard to believe that it was just Monday that I was hiking early in the morning, just before watching my son during the first of two sick days for him. That was another day off from work, which means that it is up to four this week, which will obviously be reflected in the paychecks.

Oh, well.

I have watched quite a few movies and done quite a bit of reading. And today, some of the old energy is back for writing. I started having some ideas, and even though my head still feels a little clouded over, my focus is much stronger than it was yesterday.

Earlier today, I watched Les Misérables du XXème siècle, and then just finished watching Into the Wild. Anyone familiar with those two movies knows a couple of things right off the bat. Firstly, they do not necessarily go together. What provoked me to watch them back to back, I do not know. Another thing is that they are both rather long, with Les Misérables running around three hours, and Into the Wild going for around two and a half hours, or so. Also, they are not exactly happy movies. But, since my girlfriend wants to only watch happy movies, for the most part, these are the kinds of movies that I had better watch by myself, if I want to see them at all.

It seems safe to say that one thing that both movies have going for them is that they are both thought-provoking, and that has always appealed to me. Both movies were ones that I have been wanting to watch again for quite some time now. And for some reason, today just felt like the day, and so it was. One long movie followed by the other.

Shortly, I plan to finish a book that I first read in junior high school, The Outsiders. I remember loving it back then, and it really spoke to me, for some reason. In fact, as I think about it now, those might have been the first books that I really came to love. We had to read The Outsiders, but of my own accord, I read That Was Then, This is Now, Tex, and Rumble Fish later on.

Before that, however, it felt like a necessity to do some writing, which is why I am sitting on the computer. Funny, because it has been a long time since the last stretch of consecutive days where I spent as little time on the computer as these last few days. Not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing, but it is the case.

As for my illness, I am hopeful for all signs that it is receding. As my girlfriend (who has a degree to be a nurse) has repeatedly told me to take care of myself, I have made sure to take plenty of Vitamin B and Vitamin C, plenty of medicine, and drinking plenty of fluids - particularly tea with honey.

Hopefully, it helps.

It is still frustrating to see the sun shining and feel the warmth of what is, de facto, a spring day, but tending to health has to be the first priority.