What I do when I get sick

So another boring post by moi still sick....with a few lessons I learned during previous colds/flu's.

So as I mentioned before I used to be sick a lot, especially when I was younger, and then when I got older in times during great stress such as high school and 1st year. This actually caught me by surprise because I was done all the exams, was actually sleeping 8hours and was not stressed, all my family members were better..but I quess it strikes when you least expect it.

Anyway, I was saying...when I was in high school and 1st year, I would get sick during my school term, and it would be very stressful...you know missing classes, not knowing how I would catch up...so even if I was coughing and with a fever, I would study in bed, then take some extra strength tylenol to reduce my fever, and go to class and actually take the test...I prided myself for never actually getting a sick note to postpone a test..even when I was genuinely sick. The reason for that was so that I wouldn't get even further behind because with each midterm that I postpone, another one is around the corner, so my semi-logical thinking was that I should do my best and move on to the next one and not dwell on it. The problem was there was a real price to pay for that strategy..

First off, I was very stressed and studying while being fairly sick, meant that I was not letting my body relax and fight the illness, and that meant a prolonged flu that could last for 2 months and of course complications such as bronchitis which meant antibiotics and of course that contributed to my long-term asthma problems. If I knew what I know now, I'd realize that the stress and marks aren't worth it in the long-run and I'd probably just drop the course if possible, or indeed get that extension for the test, but hindsight is 20/20.

Now, I know that the best way to get better is to provide my body with the most optimum environment. That means drinking lots and lots of fluids (in my case tea), getting lots of natural vitamin C (5 oranges a day), getting lots of rest (10-12hours), and the big one is reducing my stress level. The last one means, choosing not to study my books which are sort of staring at me, trying to not stress about the coming board exam and in general trying to relax. In previous times, this meant getting a good leisure book and reading, this time it means watching 8 hours of online tv to relax. The shows are a good distraction for me and a way to not start wallowing in self-pity, or start feeling guilty about not studying. The way I look at it is any studying I do now would not be very productive because I can't really concentrate and am basically falling asleep, plus its hard to study when you're either coughing or blowing your nose every minute.

Thankfully, I hope that the flu is running its course and my fever is almost gone, and hopefully my cough will also soon be history, and then it will be back to the books to study for the looming boards but for now, I get to relax in bed and continue watching some of my favourite shows, and hey its good for my recovery!