Stay Home!

I am sitting waiting to pick up a persciption. Why? Because I am sick with a viral infection. You know,  that "this is something yucky bit not a cold or flu." That, I sleep all day and have a splitting headache.  And I am contagious. So I will go home from here, go to bed and stay away from other humans.

That's the key. Staying away from other humans. It's the golden rule of sickness. Or at least it should be. If you are sick, stay home.

For people with children, we know this well. If you little darling is sick, you have to keep them home. The daycare or school won't let them come back until they are better. As adults,  we forget that rule and others have to suffer.

This virus won't let up for 10-14 days. I will feel various levels or horrible because someone came out around other humans when they should have stayed home.

This is the end of my public service announcement... unless you're sick. If so, go home!

A Sick Perspective

Sometimes getting sick is a good thing. Not the feel horrible part, but the part where we have to take time and recover. That’s hard to accept that but it’s true. Beyond whatever symptoms you have, I think we are equally annoyed at the the fact that our schedule comes to a screaming halt. We lie in bed and think about all the things we should be doing. Most would do anything, try any remedy to get better and back to our “normal” lives when the sad truth is we need the interruption.

Last week I had a nasty virus. Viral syndrome, my doctor called it, which is just a cryptic way to say that a virus has infected more than one system in your body. Mine was respiratory infection with a side of a stomach bug. For the first two days, I didn’t know my name or what day it was. A fever of 101.6 will do that for you.

But as I started to recover, my mind started working. I found myself thinking about all things I wished I could be doing that I couldn’t. I wanted to be singing at my church’s women’s conference, but I couldn’t. I wanted to be writing but I couldn’t sit up in bed for more than a few minutes at a time before breaking into long, painful coughing fits. I wanted to be knitting, but I couldn’t.

Then my thoughts started to expand. I started thinking about other things I wanted to do but wasn’t brave enough or didn’t have enough time to do. Laying in bed unable to do anything made it really clear what I wanted to do. It also made me wonder why I wasn’t doing it when I was healthy. To think about what was really holding me back. I prayed, “Lord, when I get better, I’m going to do the things you’ve put in my heart to do.”

Talk about clarity. I realized that all the things I delayed in doing was for stupid reasons and I should just go for it. I realized that if God put it in my heart to do, He’d help me do it. Unfortunately, I had to be completely shut down to see how much I could actually do.

 It was like I was Sleeping Beauty waking up from the spell. I needed to be removed from my “normal” life to see it in a different perspective. And now I’m thinking up a master plan, but it took me getting sick to see clearly.

"Sick" Movies

I have been sick with a cold that my lovely daughter gave me. Spring colds are not fun. Thankfully, my worse complaint is congestion, which means I have been semi-functional in a zombie kinda way.

I have resorted to my preferred method of recovering: lots of sleep, tea and movies. I actually have a stack of movies at my bedside that I watch when I’m sick. As I got ready to settle into a marathon with this cold, I realized something.  My favorite “sick” movies have sick people in them!

Here is my Top 3 “Sick” movie countdown.

3. Close Encounters of the Third Kind. When the aliens visit Barry’s house the first time (this link is of the second time they visit), Jillian, Barry’s mother, is sick in bed with a cold. As a city girl, that scene creeps me out. She’s sick, sleep in the house with all the windows open and the doors unlocked. Yeah…no.

2. Pride and Prejudice. Poor Jane. Forced to ride to Netherfield in the rain. Her suffering, however, is not in vain. Darcy gets to spend several days falling for Elizabeth and quite against his will. Favorite line: "People do not die from little trifling colds."

1. You’ve Got Mail. The scene where Kathleen is sick and Joe comes to visit her is the best. I love when she says, in the middle of their conversation, “My head is starting to get fuzzy.”