PJ Day

I woke up this morning feeling the worst since the creeping crud attacked me. 

I decided that I would do pretty much nothing, snuggle into my recliner under a quilt, watch TV, read, and sleep.  And that is what I did.  I didn't even get out of pajamas all day.  I didn't get much reading done, but it seemed that I never saw an entire television show because before whatever I was watching ended, I was asleep. 

I don't know how many naps I took, but at least four.

The cough was the worst.  Sometimes so bad that I felt I was going to vomit.

Now I must add parenthetically here that my mother was raised with Christian Science.  At least that's what I heard all my life, though she converted to Catholicism when I was 10.  I don't know how much "religion" there was in her family.  It was her mother who was Christian Science and I don't believe her father was religious at all.  My grandmother's father was a hell fire and damnation preacher and I don't think that was Christian Science either, so I'm not sure at what point Christian Science entered her life.

She never practiced it, that I knew.  She never read anything that I was aware though she read a lot of Catholic literature.

The only time her Christian Science became an issue was when she was sick.  She hated going to the doctor (still does), and rarely took medicine.  But she has also been healthy throughout her life.  In fact, the only illness I remember her having was when she got the mumps as an adult. Whenever she got sick and someone suggested she see a doctor, she'd just smile that smug, enigmatic smile and say "I'm Christian Scientist" and not see the doctor.

Because of my mother's feeling about medicine, I just don't think about it.  When I get something like the creeping crud, it never occurs to me to call a doctor (especially when everybody in town seems to have the same thing), or to take medicine.  It might be different if I had a "relationship" with my doctor but though she has been my doctor for many, many years, I still don't feel we have a "relationship."

Our "medicine shelf" is pathetic.  The cold medicines are long expired and there is little else except Imodium. 

When the kids were little, I wasn't the mother who rushed them to the doctor for every little thing, nor did I give them aspirin for a fever that was 100 or under...I always figured that it was nature's way of making sure they stayed quiet and rested.

But when struggling with wracking coughs last night, I said something to Walt about checking to see if we had any cough medicine.  He mentioned that he had some upstairs, so he brought down some "CVS-itussin" or something like that.  The bottle had two doses left in it. 

I took a dose and within 20 minutes, my cough was gone. 

Unlike Robitussin (which is supposed to last 12 hours), this one says it lasts 4 hours and 4 hours later, almost by the clock, I was coughing again.  I took the second dose and again the cough resolved.

As I said, I slept most of the day and in the afternoon sent Walt out to get some more cough medicine.  What he bought was another 4 hour dose medicine, but it again worked as effectively as it did last night.

Maybe there's something to this "medicine" thing after all!

I got up and cooked dinner, but had no appetite, so I fed Walt and had an orange and went back to cuddling under the quilt again.

I am feeling almost human again.

Now Walt has a raspy voice and feels about the way I did two days ago.  At least we're stocked up on cough medicine now.

I haven't been to Atria in over a week and I'm feeling guilty about that, but I probably won't go until Wednesday.  Today it rained all day and even if I felt better, I wouldn't have gone out in the rain.