Extra Baggage

Why was I so surprised? I should have figured that after being folded in half then fitted tightly into a jet and barely able to move during a six hour flight from the East Coast home that I might arrive back in Oregon with something I didn't want.   During the flight I developed a persistent pain that felt as if angry elves were pounding relentlessly on both sides of my skull.  My eyeballs started to feel like poached eggs. And then the very next day my throat started itching.  Soon The Incredible Hulk arrived to body slam me several times and I began to feel chilled and then too hot as if he was also alternating the placement of heating pads and then ice packs all over my body.  Next=a woozy and blah feeling.  Here's what made me know absolutely that I was beyond all sense of good health--I lost my appetite. My thinking fuzzed out.  I had just enough energy to start coughing in a manner that would be appropriate sounds for Halloween zombies to make.

I began cancelling appointments and rearranging my schedule so that I could continue to lie back on the couch and think about how awful I felt. Nights were exercises in agony as I tried to arrange my sore body in some sort of comfortable sleeping pose.  I awoke nearly every hour to begin another round of the zombie howling cough.  I started watching junk cable TV during the daytime saving only my favorite trashy program "Duck Dynasty" for evening entertainment.  When you're as sick as I was, you begin to think the whole lifestyle of this bearded Louisiana clan has some sort of charm and meaning.

Still, I managed to babysit my grands and fill the refrigerator and pantry with fresh food.  Not much else went on, though. I continued to suffer, zombie cough and wonder what it must have been like to feel well.  When I was young, I just stuffed myself with Dayquil, told everyone I was fine and kept up my schedule of work and home as usual.  When asked how I was feeling, I would declare firmly, "I"m just fine." HA. The bottom line was that I sick then and I'm sick now.  Who cares if it's the flu or a cold?  My doctor even told me to ride it out with Tylenol, fluids and maybe some Claritin.  I'm still "riding it out" and it's been a week.