What If…We Listened to Our Bodies?

I started to feel crummy☠️ over a week ago. You know what I’m talking about- sneezing, rough throat, aches. Nothing that was enough to keep me home. Nothing that would cause me to stop and 😴rest. We have a phrase in our home:

Suck it up, Buttercup!

It’s our little way of saying that the 🌎world is going to keep spinning, so we better keep moving along with it. We’re not good at ❌giving in. We’re not good at 😴resting when there’s a job to do, 👚👖laundry to finish, dinner to 🍝cook, and- well, life to live! We’re the kind of people who push through most situations with little complaints.

Sound familiar? We probably think we’re 💪🏻tough. Or maybe resilient. Or even 😇admirable. I learned this week that I was none of those things because the 😷flu kicked my butt!

Things started off without any fanfare. It truly felt like a terrible cold. I’ve dealt with hundreds of viruses over the years. I knew how to power through a cold, and this would be no different. And I did just that for the first three days of this 😷illness- sucking it up to get through whatever tasks there were during the days, then crashing hard in the evenings- all while dutifully taking my 💊over-the-counter meds. I kept the 💧fluids going, and the tissues close.

By the time I came home from work on Monday, I was going downhill quickly. In the middle of the 🌜night- 💥BOOM- the flu hit me like a bomb. I’ll spare you all of the ugly details, but I will say that it’s been about 20-years since I’ve been that sick! That should tell you something about my condition. This resulted in a blur of bathroom visits, sneezes, coughs, and coma-ish sleep as my 🛏bed became Ground Zero. I am going on the assumption that I had a strain of the flu based on my ☠️symptoms, but there was no way I could make it to the doctor for official testing. Heck- I couldn’t make it to my 🍽kitchen for two days! I don’t even remember Tuesday! When I could finally 😴stay awake long enough to eat, very few things even tasted good.

It’s been a week since the first ☠️symptoms hit me. I didn’t take them seriously. I should have, though. I tend to think I’m 💪🏻invincible when it comes to illness. I wash my hands- Germ Queen here! I take my vitamins- usually. I 🍓eat reasonably well most of the time. Ice cream counts for dairy, right? I drink lots of 💧water every day. I keep the companies making those yummy flavored waters in business! I exercise whenever I find the time. Right now, let’s go with sporadically on that one. I disinfect everything. I work with kids. I understand the importance of disinfectant! 😜I even had a flu shot! Those things weren’t enough to keep the ☠️flu out of my system.

What if…we listened to our bodies? If I had paid attention to those early signs of 😷illness, maybe I would have recovered sooner. Maybe I wouldn’t have felt like I had been hit by a 🚛truck. Maybe I would have been able to get some proper 💊medication to alleviate some symptoms. Pay attention to your body, friends. Wash your hands often! This ☠️flu is no joke!