Image source: Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels
It’s amazing to me how much a simple cold knocks me out as I get older. I can remember when I was younger being totally unphased by colds. I also seemed to remember never really getting sick.
That healthy world view flew totally out of the window, though, the second I had a kid. Once my kiddo was born, I was introduced to a whole lovely world of germs, bacteria, viruses, runny noses, rashes, you get the picture. In fact, who even knew what the heck hand, foot, and mouth disease (I promise, that link is a CDC link about prevention, with zero gross images!) was before I had a kid. Make note of my link warning — whatever you do, don’t start randomly searching for diseases, or you’ll be greeted with a vast array of the most disgusting medical images ever.
Once I went back to work, and my kid was in day care, we dealt with colds, ear infections, and multiple rounds of strep throat. And some of those colds would spill over to me and my husband. Of course, these were pre-COVID days, so even if you were sick, you’d drag your coughing self to work and try to focus, while profusely apologizing for every sneeze, cough, or nose blow.
It took a while, but it seemed that my kid’s immune system finally strengthened, and we got fewer and fewer sick days. And then.
WHAM.
COVID.
For three entire years, we wrapped ourselves in masks, hand sanitizers, and air purifiers. Thank goodness, none of us got COVID in those early days before the vaccine. While my husband and daughter did eventually get COVID, we had very, very few colds since we rarely went out and interacted with anyone else. We did take the occasional flight, but we managed to dodge and weave and rarely got sick.
But, of course, we’ve started to let down our guard a bit, and like clockwork, the colds start rolling in.
I finally got sick at the end of last week (a cold with a fever, but no COVID, thankfully), and I’d honestly forgotten how much colds can sap your energy. I should have known that it wasn’t allergies the second I wanted to sit around all day and just watch food and dance TikToks. I hadn’t realized how jam packed my days had become until all my chores and work started piling up all around me. I had only enough energy to eek out a bit of work and then I would go straight to bed to sleep.
This morning though, I woke up finally feeling refreshed. And, as I’m writing this blog post, I’m looking back on all of the things I accomplished today, and it feels so amazing to finally have my energy back.
Now that I’m freelancing, I can actually sleep and take care of my body’s needs when I’m sick. Although I always had understanding managers at my old corporate job, I always felt guilty about leaving work early. Now, I work what I can, and then rest. That means when I’m working, I actually am focused and have energy to do a good job.
And there’s no better feeling in the world than being healthy and having energy. Salud!
Comentarios