Sick Leave

For the first time in my 22 years of working, I took paid sick days, three and a half of them to be exact. I wish it was because I was out playing hooky and doing something really fun, like visiting some exotic beach relaxing, reading a great book and working on my tan. But no, instead I was sick, so sick I didn’t leave the house except to finally go to Urgent Care two days after I spoke with Teladoc. I had received a prescription from Teladoc that was not clearing up my sinus infection and was causing me more problems than benefits, like being unable to keep any food down or be very far from a restroom.

Having never been absent from this job before, I didn’t really know what to expect or how to go about it. It’s not like my old job where I just called off, didn’t get paid, and my managers desperately looked for someone to fill my position to cover a few tables. I didn’t really know what to do or even who to call into. I knew that I set up emergency substitute plans at the beginning of the year, but now that I had a full three quarters under my belt, I felt my emergency plans weren’t good enough for my students, considering they had nothing to do with what both my juniors and seniors were currently working on. I found myself looking up the employee handbook to find out who to call into and then forcing myself to stay focused enough to whip out some relevant plans for my students that a substitute could give them. 

Tonight, the eve of my return to work, I have no idea if my students ever received the work I sent or if they completed it. I figure I’ll just go back to work tomorrow with the plan to review last week and move forward as planned as if I never missed a day, let alone the entire week. Hopefully I can fill in the blanks as we go along. 

Looking back at my sick week, I recall being laid out on my bed unable to fully function. I thought about the situation I was in and the frustration of it all. I was angry that I was sick and felt it was such an inconvenience. I had things to do and wasn’t able to do them. I had planned on taking on yet another job last week by beginning to help Captain Awesome’s flag football team with their suffering defense. But given the condition I was in I couldn’t take him to practice let alone help coach the team. 

Thankfully my family was there to help. My sister-in-law was able to bring home my youngest son from school one day and run my eldest son to practice another day. My mother-in-law put the kids to bed and stayed with them, the night my husband took me to the Urgent Care. If it weren’t for my husband, I would not have made it through the week and our little family would have fallen apart. He held us all together and encouraged me to rest and take the time off because my body needed to heal. He really stepped up to the plate this week; cooking dinner, making school lunch, checking homework, doing laundry, helping with music practice, getting the kids bathed and to bed at decent times, dropping off and picking up the little one from school, running to the pharmacy for me, and taking me to the Urgent Care. My husband is truly amazing and for that I am so grateful to have him. He really is my strength, my teammate, my best friend and my soul mate. I am so thankful for him.

What I learned this week was I need to start taking better care of myself. I run myself ragged trying to take care of everyone and everything else but me and this week my body told me, “no more”. Stopped dead in my tracks, no longer able to hear clearly, unable to breathe through my nose, or think clearly with my head feeling like it was going to explode with pressure, and having little to no voice left, on top of the nausea the first set of meds gave me, I was useless…absolutely useless. I now know I need to change my priorities and take good care of myself, making sure I’m eating properly, exercising, and getting proper rest. 

Now feeling much better, I have a plan of attack. I am taking on yet another job helping to coach my eldest son’s team, but I am also going to put me first and practice my yoga and now mediation daily. I’m going to start walking the dogs again. I am going to stop eating foods that I know I’m allergic to, even though they taste good. It’s probably best not to weaken my immune system purposely introducing foods that I’m allergic to, even though I love them. Bye bye chocolate, bye bye eggs, bye bye baker’s yeast. And most of all, I’m going to rest when I need rest. 

As inconvenient as this week was, I think it was a necessary evil. It was a wake up call for me and a not so subtle reminder of how we are nothing if we are not healthy.