Thoughts on being sick

Now I have no idea of when to take it easy and when to trudge on. Last Saturday, I actually had chills when I went to bed. Had a hard time stopping shivering, even with two down comforters. Then I finally warmed up, drifted off to sleep, and... woke up sweating like a mofo. Threw off one comforter, finally kicked off the other one and lay there, still uncomfortable, for a while. Ended up getting up to gargle with salt water, maybe do some neti pot, and then took 3 ibuprofen and slept peacefully. Woke up feeling mostly OK except for the aches. Gargled and did Neti all day, until it was time to pack the youngster off to my uncle's for his overnight and me off to Red tryouts.

Nuts, huh? But I really wanted to make Red, and honey, you don't reschedule this. I was so intent on getting into the locker room that I blasted right past the coordinator, who didn't realize I was there until just after the first drill (a ladder drill, which I didn't do well), when I skated over to ask her to let my evaluator know I had a bad cold and would do the best I could despite it. "You didn't check in--I didn't even know you were here. I had you down as Out!" she blurted. Ugh! She found me an evaluator, though, because honey, I'm now a Red Player in the NCWHL!

Hung around a bit to watch the Maroon tryouts, seeing old friends as Maroon and others as Maroon hopefuls, and then took off to Belmont for the Stick Time a friend had arranged. I suited up in my wet stuff (had had the foresight to pack new dry things to wear underneath) and got on the ice... and felt tired. Stayed for about 45 mins and then gave up the ghost. It was great to take shot after shot, though. I finally lined up 4 pucks in a row like another player was doing and shot shot shot (shot). Even though they all went to Nora or wide, she said they were nice & hard. If only I could do that consistently in a game!

Monday morning, I felt fairly awful, but had to pick G up and transport him to the full-day Y-Kids. He was still a little coughy but in good spirits; I conked out at work after less than 3 hours. Went home and took it easy, drinking a lot of tea, watching taped TV and knitting. Picked up the kid and conked out.

Next morning, I got up and took my shower, feeling achy and borderline. Kid wakes up and says in a convincing voice, "Mommy, I don't feel good." I was all ready to try work, but that took the wind out of my sails. (Ironically, he'd periodically asked to stay home, sick, before. Not convincing. Now, I tell him he's staying home, and he nearly bounds out of bed. "Yeah!" sigh.

Predictably, this is not a terribly restful day for me. I do convince him that we're going to have TV-free time for a bit, so I get him set up at the computer, playing a computer game, till I hear him pounding on the keyboard in frustration. another sigh Give him a timeout, things even out, and we play a cool new game my dad got him for his bday (early). (He won, 248 to 223.)

At bedtime, I'm once again miserable. Finally take 2 ibuprofen to be able to fall asleep despite the coughing.

What I'm coming up against is that it seems like, with enough pharmaceuticals, you can power on through almost anything. So... should you?