Boom.
It hit me like a hungry gorilla realizing I was eating a banana. The blare of my alarm clock. The incessant pound in my forehead. The feeling that my cause of death may just be my own saliva that, so painful it dare not round the corner down into my esophagus, was choking me.
I was sick.
Monday morning felt like a dream; rather, a nightmare. Just the evening before I had trudged to work and back feeling young and, although a little worn out from the weekend, healthy. But everything changed at 9 A.M. Monday morning. It felt like I had accidentally swallowed the spiked head of a flail and, tumor-like, it now was stuck in the side of my throat. Oh and god forbid I move my eyes in any direction to look around, because apparently my brain wasn’t ready for the optical strain and would send jolts of pain through my skull upon every movement.
Having no real medicine (save ibuprofen), I went ahead and chugged a water bottle with Emergen-C, hoping the OD on vitamin C may at least begin to make me feel better. I felt my forehead and assumed I didn’t have a fever, or it at least was a low enough grade that my life was not threatened at this point. A couple episodes of Scrubs and a plate of Ramen noodles (not the best sick food BTW) later and I still was not feeling great. I decided I couldn’t wait to see how long the sickness was going to last and I needed to be aggressive, so a quick run to the 7-11 around the corner ended in me purchasing their entire stock of DayQuil. Two pills, a nap, and a shower later I was staring down the barrel of a 7 to 11 P.M. shift at Sirius that although didn’t look appealing was at least going to be manageable.
Tuesday started much the same, but I was prepared this time. Alarm clock, two pills of the ‘Quil, a bottle of Emergen-C, and I was ready to at least attempt to get back into my regular routine. At the gym I felt that, although I didn’t have the same amount of energy as usual, I actually felt better when I was moving around than when I was resting at home. I decided that I would from then on disregard my illness and move on through the week per usual.
However, Wednesday didn’t like my cavalier attitude. Preparing for a 9 to 5 shift at Sirius, I knew the day was going to be rough stepping out of the shower. Nose stuffy, throat exploding in pain, and eyes half open, I did my best to pull myself together and make it to the internship. And somehow, I made it through the day. I’m not sure if it was divine intervention or the 8 cups of coffee I drank, but on the other side of that shift I felt…well if ‘renewed’ isn’t the right word then ‘not dead’ will have to do.
On the other side of the popularly proclaimed ‘hump day’ (a term I hate), I started to feel progressively better. And now, sickness completely gone, I have to wonder where it all came from? I mean one day feeling fine, the next exploding in agony, and by the end of the week feeling (relatively) back to normal? My only guess is that it was a mix of high stress, a lack of sleep, and a new environment my body had yet adjusted too that combined into some mega-pathogen that my immune system was not prepared for.
Whatever the cause, I think from here on out I’ll be a little more cautious about my health. And maybe start taking vitamins. Yeah, definitely vitamins.
Nick Rothschild 