Well. I spent a fair amount of time last weekend working very hard to not feel sick, despite the sore throat, congestion, aches, pains, and fever.
Monday morning, I woke up and felt quite a lot like someone still asleep. When I was young and I didn’t feel well in the mornings, my mother would suggest that I get up and get ready for the school day and that would probably make me feel better.
So that’s what I did on Monday. Halfway to the shower, I realized that it wasn’t going to happen. There were very bad things happ
ening inside of my head, throat, and chest. I went in to wake up the kids for school and my son said “Are you feeling okay?”
“I’m kinda not, actually. Why?”
“You look really pale,” he told me.
I got them off to school and then spent a couple of hours keeping things moving. And then I collapsed on the couch, all the while saying “This is a free day off, I really should write.” But I could barely lift my head. I was so weakened, I even watched ‘Starting Over’ with Keeley.
The rest of the day is a blur of e-mails and voicemails from clients and colleagues, FoodTV shows, and odd Swedish animations.
Keeley brought me soup later in the day. Then I collapsed again onto the couch. No writing and I knew that any traction I had from last week was lost.
Tuesday I got up and, feeling quite like Monday, decided to give my mom another shot (no jokes, please) and it turned out that I could make it through the day and get some things done at work, which was good news.
And then I spent the evening with the kids and collapsed again.
Wednesday, too busy to know if I felt any better. A nice time Valentine’s shopping with my daughter. Then another collapse late in the evening.
And then today: More work, some of it (I found out later) for naught, and then an evening with the kids. Watched ‘Crimes and Misdemeanors’ and half of ‘Oscar and Lucinda’ with Keeley . . . and then I sat up and wrote for a bit while my body slowly demanded that I fall over.
But I didn’t. And I even wrote a bit.
Meetings tomorrow. Lots of them and plenty of writing to try and fit in, all for work.
But now I need to give in to the collapse.
So, good night…