In sickness and in health

I had my first bought of illness this week with a low-grade fever after my class on Tuesday. I crashed and slept for over 9 hours and dragged myself into work on Wednesday just because I had some practicum taping lined up and another class in the evening. PhD program- you are keeping me going when I otherwise may have taken a sick day! This obviously is not always a positive, but my fever was low grade and luckily counseling means sitting down:) Unfortunately by Wednesday night it had gone up and I was not feeling any better, so I decided to let myself sleep in today (Thursday) to see if I felt better (I slept 12 hours!). Long story short, I am ending up having to take a partial sick day on Thursday before crashing hard after work and sleeping another 10+ hours. Ekkkk! This whole situation brought up many thoughts for me....

I very rarely get sick. I have only taken one sick day for ACTUAL sickness since I began working as a counselor (this is not counting my internship experience where I got the stomach flu TWICE in three months- thank you elementary school students. It is even harder to let yourself take time off when you have 600 hours to complete!). It is very funny/odd/concerning that we do not like to take days when we probably need to the most and instead save them for planned appointments or trips (I hate how in my county they distinguish between sick and annual days...just let us have PTO! It discriminates against those of us without kids!). Especially now also as a student, that feeling of always thinking you should be doing something is daunting. I am guilty of this, and since I rarely get sick I should really take notice when I do, but the fast-paced lives we lead often make a day of rest (unless planned!) difficult to take. Luckily I was able to make it through work Friday, and enjoyed another long night of sleep Friday night. Though I didn't get to go out of town this weekend like I had planned, I am glad to be resting and getting back to my normal self (and runs in this beautiful weather) today. I really hate how out of it you feel when you are battling an illness. I feel like I was in a fog much of the week, off at work, and slept so much that I don't know what happened! Luckily, my lovely friend is letting me visit her next weekend instead:)

Do you all take sick days when you actually are sick?! 

Fever Pitch

This past weekend for the first time since I left for college, I got sick. I am not talking about a cold or sore throat (I did deal with tonsilitus my second year in college), but in-bed-with-a-fever sick. Where you can't get out of bed and feel like you may be dying. Or have some sort of terminal illness (my constant thought is that I always have lymphoma...long story). I don't get sick much, so I always imagine the worst.

The lesson I learned from this experience? Mom's and dad's, even at 26, still are the best nurses.

Both days when I woke up sick, I called home. My mom had to tell me what to do and called to check in with me. On the second day when I thought I was dying from hypothermia because I had chills so bad I couldn't stop shaking, I called crying. Mom and dad went to the store to do my grocery shopping and came over to take care of me. Then they took me to their house, made me a bed on the couch (like when I was younger), got me anything I needed and took care of me until I was better. 

There is something about being sick and being by yourself that just doesn't mix well. You need someone to take care of you and keep you company when you are laying around for days and days...and someone to assure you that you are not dying. Someone to love you no matter what state you're in, which when you are single, is most likely your parents (but thank you to my friends for all their sweet offers).

So to my mom and dad- thank you for being my nurses! And I will write out my bank account numbers, information and passwords and where I want my money to go to in case I do get lymphoma or west nile or some crazy terminal illness next time:).