Saturday Musings – When Your Body Says, “My Turn!”

This past week was pretty tough for me. My wife Roselyn was sick with the flu and kindly shared it with our daughters. Afterall, sharing is caring right? So there I was quarantining myself in my study thinking that I’d dodged a viral bullet when I sneezed.

There’s something about that first sneeze that caused me to instantly reflect upon whether I’d forgotten to sanitise my hands after dealing with one of the other three germ buckets in the household. Heedless of my reflection my body went into overdrive to try and combat the microbial attack.

For several days I felt like a billion tiny invaders were trying to pull me down but like a trooper my brain said “No” and I kept on working. It’s times like this that some of us need to get a revelation about the fact that our brain is merely a passenger in our body and sometimes the body steps in to say it’s in charge……so day three comes around.

Under the unending onslaught my body told my brain that it’d had enough and so I spent half the day sleeping. I woke up to a throbbing headache, a nose that dripped like a tap and eyes that felt like they were exploding in my skull.

Not to mention the itchy ears. What is it with itchy ears anyway? How on earth can you scratch your ear? Trust me, I tried and failed at that task. I watched on from the couch while the rest of the family got better, and I sarcastically thanked them for sharing their misery with me.

I don’t normally take drugs when I’m sick….call it a stupid guy thing. This time was an exception. After popping a few pills, I felt a little more human, sat at my computer for a few hours to do some work and then decided bed and more sleep was a better position to be in.

After going through this wonderful experience for a few days I’ve finally managed to come back from the brink of death (it felt like it anyway) and had the energy to write this blog post. Which brings me to why I’m writing about my week’s experience.

When I was semi-conscious, I had a stupid thought go through my mind, “What happens if I don’t get better?” Yes, I’m being a little overly melodramatic, but have you ever had that though when you’ve been sick? Sadly, for some people this is a reality.

It’s Thanks Giving time in the USA and one of the things that should be at the top of all of our “thanks” lists is our health. For many years (about 52) I’ve taken my health largely for granted but there’s nothing like a “good” dose of the flu to make you reconsider. After my nap I think I need to head to the gym.

Have a great weekend,

Michael