The sweet smell of menthol

I managed to contract Paul's cold last week. I started feeling feverish on Friday, spent most of Saturday trying to deny that I was sick, and Sunday, I was pretty much inert on the couch with a fever. I debated back and forth as to whether or not I should call in sick on Monday but my fever broke Sunday afternoon and I decided to go ahead and go to work. Paul suggested that it wasn't a good idea, that I'd be pushing myself, that I have the time, etc., etc. And he was right on all his points except I'm too stubborn to listen. I take a little too much pride in not getting sick, in my super-immune system. I've always been a very healthy person. I remember in high school when seemingly every other person in Texline School, and we're talking K-12 and teachers/staff, was down with the flu and I was still full-steam ahead healthy. The Home Ec. room was turned into a sick ward because basketball players were still coming to school. We were entering the end of district play and you had to be at school in order to be eligible to play. So, show up they did; not that classes were really happening because everyone was sleeping in the nurse's office and the Home Ec room. I was snuggling up with everyone just trying to get sick. It never did work. Someone commented to my parents at the game that night how good I looked out on the court. And I did because the majority of the other team was also sick. When you're the only healthy person running around out there, you do look like you have a step on people


So, Monday, I stubbornly went to school with cold medicine in my pocket and the resolution to make it through the day. I had a very sore throat and my ears ached as a result but by golly, I was going. Part of my stubbornness is that I know I will be gone for three days in three weeks for classes in Denton so I didn't want to take anymore time off. Also, I am hoarding sick days because if I do have a baby and it's during the school year, I don't get paid maternity leave. I can use sick leave to get paid but once that's used up, it's unpaid leave. Also, the yearbook group meets on Monday and we had a deadline on the 5th--not that we made it but I wanted to hound the staff about it. All my buts meant a very long, somewhat miserable day at work. By Monday evening, I had to concede that Paul was right as I was again running a low-grade fever. I called in to the system and left the secretary a voice mail letting her know what was going on. Then I slathered down in Vicks, dosed myself heartily with Advil and cold medicine and cuddled into bed.


I was dozing in bed when the phone rang about 8:45 and Paul said it was from an APS number. I was afraid that I'd done something wrong and they didn't know I wasn't going to be at work that day. But it wasn't. Oddly, my principal called to ask a question that easily could have waited until I returned. I understand thinking of something and needing to do it right then but it was still odd to take that call. The rest of Tuesday was spent napping or just laying on the couch watching bad television. I remember that as a highlight of being sick as a kid--all the reruns of old television shows and all the old game shows that were on in the mornings. I woke myself up snoring at one point during my mid-morning nap and the cat woke me up another time because he was sleeping on me and started chasing rabbits. Paul also took a half-day sick/personal leave but hung around the house during the half-day that he was working. It was just a cozy little household of snoozing and coughing.

My fever never returned and what is left of my cold has settled into the most irritating, lingering cough that Paul also has. Neither of us can talk much or laugh because we start coughing again if we do. We've taken to sleeping in different rooms since we're not coughing at the same times and it was quickly determined that that was the only way either one of us would get any sleep. The cat is sleeping at the top of the stairs between the two bedrooms, I guess in order not to give away his true loyalties. I've worried more than a handful of students by having a coughing fit while trying to help them with something. I haven't really figured out what medicine works the best although Mucinex seems to be helping more. I don't seem to be coughing as much in between coughing fits. There is also the faint smell of Vicks lingering in the air and on our clothes. We're supposed to go to a game night with friends on Saturday--we were laughing (not much and most just on the inside) that if we start to lose, one or both of us is just going to have a coughing fit. We're all about the pity win.