Flu Fight
I’ve been sick since Tuesday night and did not go to work for most of last week. I believe I picked up the flu in PA. It started with a sore throat and snowballed from there. We picked up the Christmas tree after work Tuesday (oh yea, we went with a real one) but I was not energetic enough to decorate it besides throwing the lights on it. On Tuesday night I had a horrible night’s sleep. I was awake more than I slept. When I got out of bed Wednesday morning everything hurt and I just had no energy.
I called in sick. Even though I felt tired as hell, I had it in my head that I needed to accomplish something. That something was hanging the Christmas lights outside. It was ridiculous. I immediately got fatigued doing it but pressed on, slowly. I only did the bare minimum, stringing much fewer lights than last year. After doing this I was totally wiped and rotated between sleep, watching tv and sitting at the computer the rest of the day. That night we took my temperature and it was 101 which is what lead me to believe it was the flu, a cold normally doesn’t give you a temperature.
Wednesday night was another miserable night for sleep. I had what felt like a constant river of snot running down my throat. In conjunction when I did doze off for brief periods I kept having this recurring, bizarre dream where my head was filled with tongue and groove flooring, piled up like a warehouse. The flooring symbolized the snot in my head I think. Flooring was being taken out but too slowly to make a dent in the big piles of wood. The reason it was backed up was because there was a problem with the people that cut the angles in the wood. I dunno, it makes no sense but that scene went through my head all night, it was nuts.
So of course I called in again Thursday, I felt even worse than the day before. I had no illusions of getting anything done that day. I was wiped. Even standing wore me out. I accomplished nothing the entire day and felt like a big loser by the end of it, but was too tired to care. At this point I warned Randall of my illness. I was supposed to play ball that weekend with him. I told him I doubted I would recover in time so he should line up a sub but I would let him know for sure Friday. It bummed me out cause I really was looking forward to playing.
Friday came and I still felt like crap but maybe to a slightly lesser degree. I called in again. Ali had her normal Friday off and was out for a good portion of the day. When she got back I told her I wanted to go with her to Sam’s Club and the grocery store. I had been in the house for 3 days and was going a bit stir crazy. At Sam’s Ali let me pick up my birthday present, a 22 inch 16×9 format, LCD screen. It is sweeeeeeeet. I almost didn’t get it because the only two they had were the display model and one box which had a big corner ripped out. I was worried the lcd was damaged but the Sam’s employee reassured me if there was a problem I could simply return it.
By the time we got to the grocery store my tank was on empty. Many times as we went up and down the aisles I had my elbows on the cart to support me. I was sooo tired. I was very happy to get back home. Originally I said something to Ali about decorating the tree that we had up in our living room for 4 days but by the time we got back I had no energy or motivation to do so. Sometime on Friday the illness started to mutate from an achy all over and tired thing to a chronically runny nose with a healthy dose of hacking, uncontrollable coughing. I took NyQuil and it knocked me out so I got my first decent night of sleep since Monday.
Saturday I woke up and finally felt decent energy-wise, maybe 75% of normal. However I sounded terrible, constantly blowing my nose and coughing like I smoked 3 packs a day. So I took a Dayquil to mask those symptoms and I fired off the starting blocks. All week I was feeling in disarray since I was home but basically doing nothing. Since we were away the prior weekend, nothing got done then so there was a HUGE list in my head of things that needed to be attended to. Well Saturday was the day I was going to make up for lost time.
I weeded the landscape, I mowed the grass, I weed whacked, I sprayed for bugs, I washed the car, I worked on the van, and I watered everything. I was outside for a good five or six hours. I was a bit tired but able to keep plugging away. It felt good to be useful. Then it was inside where I dusted while Ali cleaned the bathroom. Then we finally got out the rest of the Christmas decorations that had been sitting in big bins in the living room all week. The house finally looked sufficiently festive. I was tired by the end of my whirlwind day but it felt good to vanquish a good portion of the “to do” demons that had been swirling in my head.
On Sunday I felt about the same. Nasty cough but okay energy. Ali had to work so I was home alone again. I knocked out what was left on my mental list. I swept the floors which hadn’t been done in nearly two weeks. I emptied the canister before starting and by the time I was done there was at least 5 inches of hair in it, gross. I love the dog but she sheds so much it is unreal. I added lighting to the two palms by the road to make the decorations look less spartan. I did something a bit different this year, lighting two trees in the orchard and the queen palm behind it. I will have some pics of it all.
Of course I watched the Eagles game. Man I don’t know if I ever felt that down about the team after a win. The Redskins basically dominated them, holding the ball for almost twice the amount of time the Eagles did and running the ball at will up and down the field. The only thing that saved the Birds was a couple big plays on defense and the offense finally stringing some first downs together at the end of the game. I am positive that if the Redskins got the ball back during that last 5 minutes, the Eagles D would have caved and lost the game for them again, like they have so many times this year. Mathematically the Eagles are in good shape for a wild card, in reality they are toast. They may not win again this year.
After football I finally got around to watching Van Helsing which I have had for months. Wow it was an awesome flick! How can you a beat a movie that has Dracula, Frankenstein, werewolves, vampires a guy that can kill them all, and Kate Beckensale!! I really enjoyed it. It gets a surprising A- from me! See it.
Yesterday I had a new addition to the stupid ways to hurt yourself journal. I somehow managed to badly pull something on my right side watering the Christmas tree. I was lying on the floor, reaching in watering in the tree and pulled something, somehow. It hurt all day yesterday and still hurts badly today, just ridiculous….
I’m back at work, still hacking but hanging in there. Hopefully within a few days I can kick this thing for good. I turn 39 this weekend and am not happy about it in the least…