Been Sick For Several Days

Monday I was feeling mighty tired, so tired in fact that I knew I was coming down with something. I warned everyone at work not to come too close to me as I didn't want to give them what I had - even though I wasn't sure what I had - or if it would get worse.

Early Tuesday morning I awoke in bed in the middle of the night and realized I had a sore throat. I then fell back to sleep. When I awoke later I found that my sore throat had spread into one of my ears.

When my alarm went off later that morning I realized I was too sick to come into work, and so I called in sick. I slept Tuesday morning away, and upon waking in the afternoon I immediately realized that the infection had moved into my nasal passages. I couldn't breath through my nose at all.

With each breath I took through my mouth my throat became drier, and drier, and the pain became worse, and worse.

I also felt very tired, and so I slept, and slept.

I took some OTC antihistamines, a decongestant, Tylenol, and some Fluticasone Propionate.

I finally got up, and made myself a sandwich and some hot chicken soup, and watched a little television just before sunset.

I then went back to bed, and watched some television, and fell asleep.

This morning I woke to much the same tiredness, and chills I had had on Tuesday morning, and I carefully thought about whether it would be worth my trying to make it into work.

My employer may give us sick days, but they sure as hell don't want us to use them. After you take even a fairly conservative number of sick days you can forget about getting a larger raise.

And so there I was this morning still quite sick, agonizing over whether I wanted to get well, or get a pay raise.

I decided that my health was more important.

What with the economy I seriously doubt I'll be getting a raise anyway, so I called in my second day in a row.

I had an old friend who worked at LRS, and he told me long ago that LRS doesn't have sick days. They don't record a sick day at all, because they just don't want you coming in sick, and making other people sick.

That's the way it was at my last employer, but the one I have now essentially discourages people from taking sick days, which is a form of encouraging sick people to come to work and spread their diseases to the rest of the staff. Save a few hundred dollars here, and cost the company thousands in lost productivity I always say.

I'm glad I stayed home, because my sore throat is gone, and my ear feels clear of any infection. I have some nasal congestion and drip, and it's causing me to cough a great deal. But other than some residual weakness, and some sadness over my loss of a pay raise I feel able to go back to work - missing only two days.

Oh yes, I have one minor gripe - my ribs - I've been coughing so bad that I pulled a muscle, and whenever I cough I have to brace myself because the pain is intense and sharp.