Making the most of being sick

So I finally caved in and stopped being so self-righteous about not medicating the stupid cold. As Robin pointed out, who cares if suppressing the symptoms makes the cold last a little longer, as long as you feel okay? Point taken. A trip to the 24-hour drug store at Westgate yielded some Robitussin DM Extra Strength Cough Control (no half-measures for me), and some lemon-honey lozenges for comfort food. I almost bought some Neo Citran too, but I gave my bottle of gin to Dave X when I moved, and Neo Citran just wouldn’t be the same without gin.

Speaking of comfort food, I felt like I needed some turkey soup. So I cooked a Butterball turkey yesterday. It took all afternoon to make the turkey, and I boiled the carcass last night. Today I will make and eat turkey soup. And tomorrow. And the day after tomorrow. And so on.

I read Janet’s comments about the natural remedies and her Cure-All Carrot Soup. I started with a cup of thyme tea. It was different, but it didn’t cure me. I’d forgotten all about her Cure-All Carrot Soup, which tasted yummy and nourished me through my last cold a few years ago. So I dug through my recipes and actually found it and made it. It was delicious. (And Janet, I have to confess that the last time I made this soup, I dopily drained the carrots before processing everything in the blender. The soup is so much better – and infinitely easier to blend – when you keep the water. You might want to add that step to the directions for people who are so sick they can’t think straight – you know, the Soup for Dummies version.)

Do you like my Sick Cup? My son gave that to me for Mother’s Day when he was about seven years old, and it sits at the back of the cupboard, sometimes for years at a time, until someone is sick. Getting to use the Sick Cup one of the perks of being sick.

The other perk is not having to go to work. Gillian pointed out that I shouldn’t take my germy self to work and make others sick, I should stay home and stay warm and rest. You know, when I’m NOT sick I am the biggest advocate of people staying home when they’re sick. I used to have a boss who said “It’s called sick leave because if you’re sick, LEAVE!” But the thing about colds is that you’re sick for so damned long, and you really can’t take all that time off work for a simple cold, can you? I’ve been sick for nine days if you count the lead-up (feeling crappy before the cold took hold). Anyway, I did end up taking Thursday afternoon and Friday off work.

Debbie reminded me of the cancelled housewarming party. I am SO glad I cancelled that party, I would have been sick and unable to communicate much as my voice was still pretty croaky (and by the way, whoever said that a husky voice is sexy obviously has not heard me this week – I sound like a cross between a frog and a pubescent boy). Instead of partying, I spent Saturday night sitting in my pyjamas, boiling a turkey carcass, drinking carrot soup, watching TV and knitting. It was nice. I felt happy.