the lost weekend

On Friday morning I was in the bank at about 11 a.m. Everything seemed to be taking too long ( three separate things, not too involved),when I suddenly realised I was excusing myself to cough, oh, about every three minutes or so (was in the bank for about 45 minutes all up).

When I was walking back to my car I was thinking,gee, I must have been sitting in a strange way, all those pains shooting up and down my back are odd.

In the fruit shop, I could absolutely not make any sort of decision or judgement about the fruit to buy for my mother, who was coming out of rehab ( new knee, not drug or alcohol related) so I just left the shop empty handed. Getting into the car again I was shivering and shaking and thinking, even though it’s 21 degrees , my but it’s cold. At home, I ate a roll I didn’t want(it tasted like cardboard)because it was 2.00 p.m and I’d had breakfast at 7.30 a.m. and surely I should be hungry by now?

My husband telephoned to ask me something and we had a strange disjointed conversation ( accompanied by coughing) and he said, you sound really unwell are you feeling alright? I realised then I was feeling horrendous and had been for some time. When you are lucky enough to be a person who feels really well nearly all the time, you tend to not recognise sickness because you’re not looking for it.

I hung up the phone and went up to bed in a daze, after popping a pill for the headache, from all the coughing. For the next couple of hours I dozed in bed,wearing bed socks, and a jumper because I was shivering all the time and could not get warm (later I was breaking out in sweats) The kids came home -I spoke vaguely to them, half went back to sleep until 5.30, then started up realising my daughter needed to be taken to work,about 10 minutes drive away,had to be there by 6.

Just as I was looking for keys, thank goodness my husband walked in an hour early so he took her to work, then went to get a prescription filled for me. You see, my husband had this exact lurgy 5 days after we came back from holiday (he got a much worse dose than me and the doctor gave him a repeat prescription which he hadn’t used up so now I am).
I had a bit of dinner in bed and slept for a long time, gathering my strength for Saturday because I was working and knew I would never be able to get anyone to replace me at the 11th hour because we never have enough casual staff to cover the I- desk on weekends.

On Saturday I tottered in to work and the team I work with were fabulous, so I got through what I had to - the last bit of the afternoon dragged a bit but I managed, kept manically disinfecting the phone and pens and computer keyboard with the stuff we were given by management when swine flu broke out in Melbourne last year. Stayed at a distance from the others. Home to a quiet evening and early bed, we had to cancel a dinner out with friends which was really annoying because we were all looking forward to it. My husband had done this on Friday evening, knowing that after working I would be a basket case.

On Sunday , still coughing (and am still) but my head was better after sleeping most of the afternoon. I don’t like being sick, it is such a waste of good reading time. I have looked at books with pictures and flicked through a few more but with a woolly brain it is hard to function at my usual clip.