This has been a ‘sick’ week. To be clear, I don’t mean that as in great or amazing. I mean it in terms of a nasty head cold, just plain sick.
My website updates on Monday. I always have my blog post for the following week ready by Thursday or Friday, so I can have a proofreader go over it and look for typos and stuff like that. When you write a lot, and especially when you sometimes use voice dictation, it’s easy to have typos.
I came down with this cold last Sunday night or Monday morning, I think. I was fine one minute and “Boom”, the next minute I was desperate for tissues and Vicks. I assemble the weekly newsletter sometime Monday into early Tuesday morning so that it can hopefully go out on Tuesdays. When I wrote the newsletter last week, I was already sick, and I even mentioned it. With MS, even a common cold becomes an even bigger hassle. My already inefficient one-handed typing gets even worse. The ever-present tiredness that is a common characteristic of MS has definitely been worse all week.
The cold threw my whole week off track in multiple ways and here I am on Friday morning with no blog post written, no ideas for one, no energy to want to do anything but sleep. I’m sure that just about everyone knows the feeling of when something as simple as the common cold knocks you for a loop.
I always try to be as straightforward as possible with what I write, so that’s the scoop this week. My doctor was here Wednesday. His professional guidance? Take Airborne, and extra vitamin C, drink broth and get a lot of sleep. It’s the sleep part that’s difficult.
I started sleeping poorly towards the end of my first pregnancy. I remember somebody laughingly telling me at the time that it was nature’s way of preparing me as a parent to never have a good night’s sleep again. Pain and discomfort from MS further messed up my sleep patterns, and then the death of my husband compounded it immeasurably. So sleep is elusive, but I’m wiped out and trying to follow the doctor’s advice.
I have to ‘cut myself some slack’ this week, as the saying goes. I know it’s what I’d tell anyone else to do. It’s what’s reasonable in this situation.
I don’t know if it’s something that’s hard for everybody to do. I’ve always had trouble just taking it easy, so maybe it’s just a personality flaw. Maybe it’s worse than ever because I’ve had to give up so much because of things outside my control, that I cringe at the thought of voluntarily giving up more – even temporarily.
Tell me what you think of any or all of this. I really enjoy your feedback. Email me at frominhere@gmail.com. Then look for the newsletter next week to see if you happen to win a thank you from me.
Meanwhile, time for more Airborne citrusy orange flavor fizzy tablets in water …