This past weekend I got sick. Something hit me pretty hard: fever,
coughing, aches, and copious amounts of phlegm.
It has been a while since I’ve dealt with anything like this. I have taken a few “call in hung over” days
over the past couple of years, but it’s been a while since I had some sort of
full fledged infirmity.
It started Sunday morning. I was in the midst of a pretty productive
weekend. I’d done yard work Saturday
including some serious weeding. As much
as I’ve heard that Georgia is behind on its yearly rainfall, you would not know
it by looking at my lawn. I spent my
post yard work evening watching the NCAA hockey championship game and cooking
ribs on the grill.
My plan for Sunday was to spend the morning finishing my
backyard then to move on to doing things inside the house. When I woke I was in no shape for it. Sleep had been restless and I was shivering
with fever. I had to get completely
dressed, socks, shirts, and long pants, just to control the shivering. I tried to combat the symptoms, but my
medicine cabinet was full of expired over the counter pills.
This is a regular issue for me. I don’t get really sick that often, certainly
not often enough to use all of the medicine I buy. So it’s not unusual to find long expired
medicines in my cabinet. I dug around
and found some ibuprofen and an antihistamine that were still good and gave it
a go. I even took a chance on Monday
with a cough suppressant and expectorant that weren’t too far past their
expiration.
Sunday and most of Monday were unpleasant. I was feverish, short of breath, and couldn’t
get comfortable. Sleep was out of the
question. Monday evening things started
turning in the right direction. I
finally felt it was time to try to eat something, which I hadn’t done since
Saturday night, and that I also should begin to drink some of the liquids that
I should have been drinking all along.
Though I didn’t quite feel up to going to the store to get some of the
things I needed, I started to have distinct cravings for orange juice and
Spaghetti O’s.
The orange juice is a no brainer. People tend to drink a lot of the juice when
they have a cold or flu regardless of whether or not the excess vitamin C
actually speeds in the recovery process.
It’s been ingrained in our minds that it does, most likely by some
Florida citrus growers association. The
Spaghetti O’s craving is very distinctive and specific.
Spaghetti O’s are something that I ate a lot of as a
child and through my college years as well.
Over the years I think I lost my taste for it. It’s just not made for a very mature palette. Without a doubt, this was specifically what I
was craving. When I finally made it out
of the house on Tuesday to get some juice and to resupply my medicine cabinet I
did buy a can of it. I haven’t eaten it
yet, though. I’m afraid that wanting it
will be better than having it.
I think being sick like I was dredged up childhood
memories. There must be a strong
association deep in my mind between being sick and getting to eat Spaghetti O’s
as a treat. Or, perhaps, maybe my body
is telling me what I need through cravings.
Regardless, I think the moral of this story is that I should yearly make
sure I have everything I need in case I get sick: good medicine, a can of
concentrated orange juice in the freezer, and an emergency can of Spaghetti O’s
in the pantry.
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