Sick

We've been pretty lucky this school year in terms of illnesses. We all passed around a hearty cold in September, and until this past weekend have been healthy. Ah, but this weekend. I don't know who gave it to whom, but the bro, Nat and I were hit. And the bro and I were hit hard.

I spent most of Sunday evening and the early hours of Monday morning tossing and turning due to the shards of glass I thought I was swallowing and the fact that I couldn't breathe out of my nose. The combination of these left me waking up every fifteen minutes. When Monday finally arrived, I was so miserable that Dan had to take the day off of work because I couldn't function. This was compounded by the day time cold medicine that says very specifically on the bottle, "non-drowsy" that made me very drowsy in fact. Izzy, RN told me this is the "paradoxical effect." In my cold medicine hang over, I needed to know about this condition from which I suffer. When she said it a second time, and I put together the "paradox" part, I felt a little foolish. I am, after all, a trained English teacher. Really, the only cure I know of for the common cold, is a few pints of beer. I kid you not, I tested this theory in college and if it doesn't cure the cold outright, it does a bang up job of masking the symptoms.

Since Dan had to return to work on Tuesday, and I clearly couldn't be left alone with my children while taking non-drowsy-drowsy day time cold medicine, nor could I drink a few beers in the middle of the day, I was left to just suck it up and push through. So I raked the yard and stacked some wood, got Joey a haircut, and played a quick game of operation. Today I am sore and tired and still have a cold. My arms hurt from raking, I have two blisters on my left hand, my abs hurt from coughing, my nose is raw from blowing, nothing has any flavor and the the one thing I did want to eat today, the bro wanted so I gave it to him and was too lazy to make something else, so I didn't.

I may have stumbled not upon a new cure for the common cold, but a new way to shed a few pounds and tone up.