Sorry I’ve been MIA…but I’ve been home sick!
Submitted by Dr. Gwenn Is In
Yes, even doc-mom bloggers get sick! It hit me last week out of the blue like a Mack truck that decloacked on a superhighway with out warning. So, I suspect it was one of the flu viruses that have been on our minds recently.
I thought about attempting to blog, even fired up the computer at one point to give it a whirl, but my mind was too foggy and I just didn’t have the oomph. So, I took the advice I give out so many times during the flu season to others: I rested!
This was no ordinary rest, though. I found myself in bed for the entire long weekend and for most of that time I actually slept, which is unusual for me with a bug of any kind.
That’s how I know I likely had one of the flu bugs. I just don’t get sick like that.
Luckily, I had received my seasonal flu vaccine earlier in the month. So, while it could have been seasonal influenza, more likely I suspect I had H1N1. I’ll never know…but as it’s going around and I haven’t yet received that vaccine yet, it’s a safe bet!
Regardless of whether I had H1N1 or one of the many other viruses that circulate with the flu viruses this time of year, I did what I was supposed to do: I stayed away from other people and rested!
To go a step further, let me give you a sense of some other steps I took to get back on my feet and help contain the spread of whatever I had in my home and community:
1. I called my doctor. I have a form of inflammatory arthritis so I know a simple cold or virus in me can become a big deal. But, even without an underlying condition, I felt lousy enough that this wasn’t the time to be patient and doctor to myself!
2. I called out sick. I missed not only a clinical shift but stayed away from some media work, too. I didn’t want to expose others, health or sick, to what I had.
3. We went to plan B for our kids’ schedules. My husband did some kid running and we actually cancelled some things.
4. Early in my illness we stocked up on anything I would need at home – sports drinks, soup, crackers, etc. The key was making sure I didn’t have to leave home!
5. One of our daughter’s came home from school last Friday with a fever so over the weekend we did a mini isolation. My husband kept our healthy daughter busy while I took care of our sick daughter, with his help when needed. The feeling was, I already had the bug!
6. We made sure we had tissue, hand sanitizer, fever control medication and a functional thermometer as soon as we realized I was sick…and stocked up in case illness recurred later in the flu season.
7. We talked about a plan of attack should one of us get sick later in the flu season. Who would get the kids to their activities? What if both of us get sick at the same time? Do we each have all the doctor’s number programmed into our phones? Good to catch up on all those details…and be sure all the grownups in the home have all those details!
By the end of Columbus Day, we were all healthy again!
Had we not been so aggressive in resting and letting our illnesses run their course, we may not have been so luck with how brief and uncomplicated our illnesses ended up being.
Illness this time of year packs a punch on families logistically and financially. If parents don’t work, paychecks don’t come in. If parents are not healthy, kids don’t get where they need to be after school.
As parents, we don’t hesitate to keep our children home from school when they are sick but not so great in staying home when we are sick. Your body will recover much faster if you don’t force it to work when it’s battling a war against an illness. You are essentially burning the candle at both ends by doing so and your illness will last longer that way.
I hope my family’s recent dip in the illness pond will give you a bit of a road map should illness enter your home this flu season. If you get sick this flu season, don’t feel a bit of guilt for caring for yourself. Feel empowered that you are taking the responsible path not just for your health but for the health of the people you care about the most and who count on you each and every day…your family, friends and co-workers.
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