I just wore myself out doing a puzzle

I just wore myself out doing a puzzle. But that is a major improvement over yesterday, when I couldn’t figure out how to fit a single solitary piece in a 15 minute period.  That was embarrassing, but luckily no one knows. So my admission to this now can only be attributed to the depravity of my illness. This cold is totally unparalleled in my recent memory of colds. Coughing is so exhausting.  Now the upside.

1.       I managed a short trip to the post office to claim what must have been the lost box that my coworker’s sent me at some point. It was full of Kleenex, travel tp packlets, and medications and yummy treats. It was sent I think after I talked about my first African cold, which was pretty tame in comparison to this here monster.

2.       Ever the multi-tasker, I had already scheduled to have language week at my house during this (unbeknownst to me) sick week, so I managed to hopefully only miss one week of work. Although I am typing this on Saturday and Monday still looks iffy for work at this rate of recovery. (Downside of course is for Tom, who came to language week, and Tonic, our language teacher, who actually lived in my house for the week. Hopefully they aren’t right now coughing up their own lungs.)

3.       Those pesky few pounds I managed to pick up on my recent trip home are probably gone baby gone.

Sorry, that’s really all I got. Otherwise I have no energy to do much of my job work projects or Peace Corps work that is due Tuesday. I am cancelling my surprise trip to Kanye to visit my Motswana niece who turns 13 this week because the thought of two bus rides and exposing my family there to this crud leaves me, sadly not “cold” but hot and sweaty at the thought. Even the peanut M&Ms hold no appeal right now. Too much chewing involved. Laundry is piling up and I don’t care.

Being ill afforded me the opportunity to peruse the nifty manual “Where There is No Doctor” with all kinds of health information to use out in the sticks in villages where there are no doctors. I know more about all kinds of icky things that make you sick, but at least I also know (well, I am pretty sure anyways) that I don’t have anything more serious than a cold.

I suppose I could have pneumonia, so if I am really not better by the time I go to post this Monday (well, if I am not then this won’t be posted Monday), I need to talk to our doctor. He will want me to go to the office to see him.  See, now here is the thing.  If I feel that sick, and am that sick, I won’t be able to get on a bus and go see him. Getting on a bus and going to see him would only prove I wasn’t that sick, which would be worth doing if it proved I wasn’t sick because then I would obviously start to feel much better, but then it would be a waste of time, because I won’t be sick. Right?

Plus in addition to the medical care, I would receive what must be a regular part of the Peace Corps medical care mantra (a good plan for people away from home for the first time and in their mid to late 20s, I suppose), which includes looking at any psychosocial aspects of a particular illness. Good advice if I am there for alcoholism, or an STD, or because I wantonly chose to go outside without sunscreen or an umbrella (clearly suicidal, if you ask me). I am almost 50 and I get the psychosocial aspects of disease. I have been round that block so many times that I have a slight lean in the same direction when I walk (yeah, left.) I have even been able to make myself sick or allow others to make me sick (so to speak) more times than I care to mention.  And even if this cold isn’t strictly caused by traveling for a zillion hours over 9 time zones twice in 10 days in a metal can with questionable ventilation, full of hundreds of people, but in fact also brought on by the emotional stress of my father’s death, my mother’s move, and a visit to IKEA, I am still physically sick and thus potentially in need of TLC.

I think my cats are showing me the way. Eat, drink, rest (A LOT), and play or swat something when you have the energy.  They are also providing the TLC.  Yes, I promise, I WILL go to the doctor on Tuesday if I am not feeling better, or cough up the second lung. Uhh…come to think of it, I was in the PC office 3 days before this cold started…..now I am conflicted again….better nap on it….

What a difference a day makes. This morning I wore myself out doing my laundry, which is much closer to normal. Once I can convince the cats to stop their WWF match on my lap, I may be headed for another nap.