Tag Archives: fever

Taking A Break To Be Sick (or Hitting A Road Bump)

On Monday, I woke up feeling a bit funny. Since I had a late start to my shift that day, I figured I’d spend the morning taking it easy and hopefully would feel better before I had to leave.

I went to work, but my head felt fuzzy and I just didn’t feel right. I spent most of my lunch break sleeping in my car. I also started to feel a bit feverish (I was shivering like I was cold but when I touched my skin it was burning up). After being at work for 4 hours, I told my boss that I had to head home.

To be perfectly honest, I don’t remember driving home too much. But I do remember taking my temperature as soon as I was inside (it was 102), and then going immediately to bed. I slept on and off all night, and when I woke up yesterday, I still felt awful.

So I took another day off of work. I still had a fever and I know that my boss doesn’t want anyone sick to be in the office (because we all seem to catch illnesses from each other).

I tried to stay productive while I was home, but while I had the fever it was difficult. I did have a phone interview for a new job, and that went well enough that I made it to the next step (which is a writing sample test). I have until Friday morning to complete the next step, so I’m going to take him with that.

I also got some e-mail responses to other jobs I’ve applied for. I should have at least one more phone interview this week. That’s making me happy.

Before I left work on Monday, I did talk with my boss again. I had to ask him if he would be my job reference for my current job. He finally did realize then how serious I was about having to take myself out of the situation at my job. He asked me to promise that I would at least stay there through this week, and I know that I will do that.

But I’m still working on putting myself first. I’m doing that by looking for a better job and I’m doing that by taking time off to be sick. As of right now, it is my plan to go in for my shift today. The fever is gone and while I’m still congested, that can be managed with medicine. But at least I did get some steps done while I was out to make sure that I am on the road to a better day job for me.

2 Steps Forward 1 Step Back (or Going With The Flow)

Again, I can never depend on life just going the way it should be.

I was starting to get used to my work schedule again, then I get sick. Everyone in my office was passing around this bug and I was the 5th person to get it. Fortunately, I have a very understanding boss who let me take a day off when I had a fever. Yesterday when I got up, my temperature was 102. It finally went below 100 at bedtime.

And I finally was getting into a nice groove with my workouts. I absolutely love spinning. I just did 5K #4 (and signed up for 5K #5 for later this month). And when I went to wash my sports bra this weekend after the 5K, it died a nice gruesome death in the washing machine. What happened was the metal fasteners from the back got trapped in the machine. It got totally shredded most likely during the spin cycle (enter spin cycle/SoulCycle spin class pun here). This was my only sports bra. It’s incredibly tough to find one that works for me and comes in my size.

After these two things happened pretty much back to back, I wanted to have a meltdown. I did have a minor freakout, but in the privacy of my house. And I had to fix both problems quickly.

Obviously, getting over a sickness is not something that you can completely control. But I’m drinking a ton of water to flush this out of my system, and I’m focusing on getting plenty of sleep. And while I was home being sick, I went online and found a sports bra that I liked online. It’s from Lane Bryant, and they fit their sports bras like their regular bras (which I wear), so I’m hoping it will fit me. I thought about waiting until I had time to go to the store to try it on, but if I do that, it will be far too easy to put off for forever. According to my online order, I should have my new sports bras (I ordered 2 so I wouldn’t have this problem again) by the end of this week/beginning of next week.

Even though it might not sound like it from this post, but I’m getting better at dealing with unexpected issues. In the past, I would have seen the ripped sports bra as an excuse to not keep working out or to bail on my next 5K. Now I just see it as a minor set back that was easily fixed by doing some quick shopping online. Even though this may sound like baby steps, they are at least baby steps going in the right direction.