Monday, September 27, 2010

Sick

I'm not good at being sick.  I suppose nobody really is.  But I seriously give up all my grace and composure when I'm ill.  I'm prone to laying in my bed, crying to my mother and generally feeling sorry for myself.  Being sick makes me sad, lonely, homesick and depressed.  It's no fun at all.  I've had a head cold (and refused to see a doctor) for five days now and while some moments I'm feeling better, I'm losing my voice and am zapped of all energy. 

I don't know if it's the perfect Cali weather, but since moving out of the Midwest I get sick so rarely - maybe once a year.  These colds last about a week, take up home in my lungs if I'm really lucky, but don't come back too often.  No sinus infections, bouts of bronchitis or trips to the ER for my asthma like I would get in the Michigan winters.

Before my first set of finals as a freshman in high school, I came down with the walking pneumonia (whatever that is).  I was completely wiped out for over a week and remember laying on the couch shaking and crying between study sessions.  It was probably the sickest I can remember being and it was then that I truly discovered the mind/body connection.  See, my parents had just taken me to see a psychiatrist for the first time and it was a completely traumatizing experience.  I literally left the doctor's office a thousand times more physically ill than when I entered.  I firmly believe that I might have been coming down with a cold that day, but the experience of going through what I did completely wore my body down and brought on the pneumonia.

Since moving to California, I've been able to shed some demons. Now, I'm not perfectly happy all the time, and there's been a certain loneliness front moving in lately, but I'm generally more confident and content than I've ever been.  It's most certainly a combination of the ideal weather and enlightened attitude that allow me to be more healthy more often. 

Now I say ideal So Cal weather, but we hit a record high today and it's almost October.  One hundred and ten is a scorcher.  And I have a second floor carpeted apartment with no air conditioning.  Pity yet?  Also, we have midterms next week.  Now I suppose I'm always in the middle of some school crunch, and being sick gives me an excuse to stay home with my books, but the last thing I want to do is study when it is this hot and I feel this lousy. I can only drink so much water and take so much ibuprofen.  Despite this head cold/allergies/whatever is making me feel like my head is full of cotton and my throat is closing up, I'm going to start running again tomorrow.  Maybe sweating it out will make this body feel better.  Have to get back on the horse sometime, and it might as well be sooner than later. 

1 comment:

Michael said...

We have air conditioning. You have a key. You are welcome to come here any time....sick or not.