Well… after three years of avoiding any and all illnesses, it finally happened. No, I don’t have covid, or strep, or anything like that. But, I’m still sick as a dog. Though, I don't really feel like it.

I began to show symptoms on Friday, and I seemed to have peaked last night/this morning, which means that I will (hopefully) be better by the middle of this week. Which… is a bit of a mindfuck to me. 

Clearly, I’m not used to “normal people” sicknesses. I used to stay home when I felt sick not because I worried about passing my illness to others (very few people could get Pseudomonas or MRSA or a fungal infection from me). But because I was too sick to lift my head off the pillow, and couldn’t even muster the strength to lift up my phone or the TV remote to entertain myself. When I got sick, I got really sick really fast, and that illness would last for months. On days that I could lift my head off the pillow, I’d get on with life as usual, knowing that A) I couldn’t spend three straight months in bed, and B) I couldn’t pass my nasty lung stuff to anyone else. 

Now things are very different. I’m sick, but not deathly sick. That also means that my illness is likely contagious. If I didn’t have something that was probably contagious, then I would’ve forced myself to get on with life as usual because… well… I’m just stubborn as a mule and I don’t want a dry cough and runny nose get in the way of me doing things. 

But, because I have something that, for once in my life, I can actually give to other normal people, I’ve decided to stay home till I’m no longer sick. Instead of going to class today, I emailed my prof to let her know that I’ve got a non-covid respiratory virus, and went on a hike to get my excess energy out in a healthy, isolated way. 

Hopefully, within the next couple of days, I will recover to the point that I’m no longer a public health hazard. Until then, I will remain in my little bear den, away from the world around me. Because, sharing respiratory viruses during that time of the year when everyone’s getting sick, is not a very nice thing to do. Even though, whatever I have is very mild (at least, to me), and isn’t gonna stick around for very long at all.

In a strange way, this illness is worth celebrating. After twenty-one years, I'm finally getting to experience what it's like to get sick when your body isn't already trying to self-destruct every single second of every single day. It still sucks to get sick. I don't like that my throat is as itchy and scratchy as it is. But, compared to what I've dealt with in the past, this flu/cold/whatever is a walk in the park. Still, I don't want to give it to anyone (which is why I'm staying home this week), but at least whatever I have isn't going to require months of medical intervention to prevent it from killing me. 

How awesome is that?!