I’m home sick today. I feel terrible. I have some historic plague. It’ll be over in a few days.
But I have to tell you something while it’s here.
I am the worst when I’m sick. I go back and forth between being “Stronger” like that female pop artist I can’t remember at the moment and trying to reason with my cat that he should be a more sympathetic caregiver.
Come here and be with me, kitty. Fine, I hate you too.
Somehow, I have created a narrative that makes me sound much tougher than I am when I’m sick. It’s all because the sicker I get, the tougher I get … but when I have something petty and terrible like an upper respiratory thing (I won’t say “the i word”) and I’m on antibiotics … I just quit.
Some people get all isolated when they’re sick … they just want to be left alone. I get all needy when I’m sick … and I drag as many people as will join me into the funk of being sick.
I just married this guy. He’s awesome.
He’s gonna have a rough couple of days. I need, like, soup and all kinds of care when I’m sick. So give him your empathy, give me none and don’t judge me for how I behave for the next couple of days.
Jo
January 2, 2013
I hate being sick. I’m terrible at it–I definitely make everyone leave me alone. I really want a cave with magically stocking shelves for the foods/meds/drinks I need, and a TV with whatever I want to watch, and some blankets.
Lizzie
January 3, 2013
Ha … I reach out from the pit and try to grab people’s hands and shit. Please be near me. PLEASE. It’s terrible. But I’m the opposite on all of the other days. Why are you so near me?
Lena
January 3, 2013
H O L L A.
Lizzie
January 3, 2013
<3
irisira
January 5, 2013
For real, this is me. I am super whiny when I am only a little sick, but the sicker I get, the more of a “trooper” I try to be. When I am REALLY sick and convince myself (or am convinced by others) to stay home, though, I’m pretty solitary. I take some drugs, make some tea, and sleep it off. When I have the stomach flu I usually need to be cared for, but that’s because I literally cannot function. C and I are both pretty similar when we’re sick, so we understand each other and deal well. We did both end up with the stomach flu at the same time, which was bad. I called my mother to bring us bananas, ginger ale, and saltines, and to come walk the dog, because we couldn’t move. Thank goodness she was close by; I don’t know how either of us would have walked Finnegan otherwise.
Lizzie
January 7, 2013
Oh man … I know the feeling … I’ll be a trooper when I have fucking pneumonia and I’m in the hospital. That’s when I’ll man up. But not a cough before.