Sick

Yup, I’m a big baby.  Just like most men, when I get a sniffle you’d think my appendix had burst.

I’ve been really lucky since I moved to Delmarva.  Other than some mild seasonal allergies I haven’t been sick that I remember.  And, living alone, I can whine all I want.  And if I do my dog Jack just looks at me, cocks his head and then goes back to the marrow bone he had decided to work on that day.

I try to maintain a healthy diet and exercise as much as I can.  I don’t buy processed food.  I take a zinc tablet every day.  But I must admit, the hip replacement (4/2022), right knee replacement (7/2023) and left knee replacement (11/2023) have left me a bit hobbled.  I’m looking forward to being able to resume my walks on the boards with the 9:59 club.

Right now, that’s a dream a couple of months away.

I remember the last time I was really sick.  It was 12 years ago when I was working on a multi-year implementation project to install software at the Mexican Military Bank in Mexico City.  It was a great project.  We stayed in a nice hotel and if the weather was good, we could walk to work.

It was a sweet project.  But one day I woke up to feeling like I’d been hit by a camión. Not only did I feel like s***, but there’s hardly anything worse than being sick on the road.  And it’s even worse when you’re sick on the road in a foreign country.  Small things become almost insurmountable, like how do you translate Kaopectate into Spanish for the farmacia?  Kaopectateo? 

My years long healthy streak ended last Friday.  I was having the roast beef dinner at the VFW.  It was delicious but I couldn’t finish.  I just started to feel lousy. I even left 2/3 of my beer!

I got home and went to bed after chugging some NyQuil.  A heavy cough along with a fever and chills set the night off.

Saturday, Sunday and Monday I never left the house.  Everything hurt, especially my new knee.  I “blew” through two boxes of Kleenex. 

Yeah, I know, wahh, wahh, wahh.

By Tuesday I was feeling good enough to join the 9:59 Club.  I missed those guys!  When I showed up on the boards after missing three days, they looked at me funny and the Chairman of the Boards said “oh, you weren’t here?”  Yup, funny guy.

As of today, I’m feeling better except I still have a cough like I smoke three packs of Lucky Strikes a day.  But it sure beats feeling like roadkill.

I really shouldn’t complain.  I have a friend who seems to go from one infirmity to the next.  And I’m not talking hangnails either.  Big stuff like spinal surgery.  Yet you’d never know it to look at her.  She’s the picture of health.

In my case, I lost 12 pounds while being sick.  So, it wasn’t all bad!