10/16/2011

Further Musings of a Sickie

MargaretMargaret
Filed under: @ 5:14 pm

So I came down with some sort of respiratory FUNK last week. Sneezing and runny nose on Wednesday, congested and sinusoid by Thursday. I spent much of my last hour at work Thursday evening running around with a bottle of disinfectant spray trying to de-cootie-ize everything that I touched.
Spending three days sleeping as much as I needed to sleep and not talking unless I felt like it has absolutely been helpful, but it’s still going to be rather a sucky week at work.
I HATE having to try to suppress a tickly throat cough, a sneeze, or a runny nose when I’m in a room with a client. I always feel like I should wear a giant ‘COOTIE’ sign around my neck because to my recollection, I’ve NEVER seen a human physician with the sniffles.
But you have to have arterial bleeding, a blazing fever, hallucinations, or projectile vomiting to be a veterinarian and not come to work.

In my next career I’m going to work somewhere that I can take off from work and not feel guilty about it if I’m unfit for human company.

Sorry, I am being rather a whiny little drama llama here, but I truly LOATHE being sick.

That said, I do get strange when I’m ill.

Note the fact that on Friday I pulled out the ironing board and *gasp* I actually IRONED something. It’s probably been 10 years since I’ve ironed a piece of clothing. And since I couldn’t go out in my garden and play, ironing the wrinkles out of one of my doctor coats seemed a good thing to do at the time.
I still can’t explain why.

Also I would like to offer a wee piece of advice for those who may come up with an upper respiratory FUNK over this winter (or for the rest of your lives, actually).
Don’t, that is *DO* *NOT* succumb to the temptation of Chloraseptic throat spray. If you’ve got a sore throat you’d be better off cutting your own head off to make your throat stop hurting. Gargle salt water, drink hot lemon with honey, drink straight bourbon, suck ice cubes, whang yourself on the finger with a balpeen hammer do ANYTHING but use Chloraseptic throat spray.

That is, unless you like to suck on old athletic shoes in which case you should go ahead and have fun. But don’t come to me for any, I poured the rest of it down the sink (and I’m still thinking that I should have a priest in to exorcise the drain trap just in case).
DAMN that shit’s nasty!

I promise I’ll be less grumpy sometime after my next nap.

2 Responses to “Further Musings of a Sickie”

  1. Dalek Says:

    Ye gods. You, too?!? I came down with *something* on Wednesday that fairly well flattened me. Congested, but worst of all was the utter blah no energy meh exhaustion (and cranky, oh ye gods and singing green turtles, I was CRANKY!). Fortunately I have the option to work from home, which is exactly what I did on Thursday and Friday. I’ve shaken whatever-it-was off fairly well, I think, but I’m dreading what might happen when I go back to work on Monday. Because there seem to be an awful lot of bugs making the rounds already this fall…

    GAH. Hate being sick. I totally sympathize with you. Feel better soonest!

  2. Valerie Says:

    Yikes! Oh dear, I knew that bit about the Chloroseptic crap. Not only is it awful, but there’s very little chance of you actually getting the spray on the affected area, so it is inefficient too. Probably too late for you, but in these instances, Mucinex is your best friend. Many years ago when I was stuck in the UK on a business trip I got the cold/upper respiratory flu from hell. I went to the “chemist” and he recommended a particular brand over-the-counter cough syrup. Which worked like a working worky thing works. It also helped that right on the label it said it was good for “The Catarrh” which sounded like pirate flu to me so I always got the giggles when I took it. It was awesome. Knowing that the rules are different between the UK and the US, I very carefully noted what the active ingredients were in the syrup so I could try to find something similar back home. No luck, until Mucinex came out a couple years later. Obnoxious, horrible, disgusting ads that made me NOT want to buy the product. But the secret ingredient matched up, and it works great, so it’s got a place in my medicine cabinet.

    I hope you’re feeling better! Nothing like a fresh, crisply ironed doctors coat to tell the world “hey, I get weird when I get sick…”

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