I’m sick and tired of being sick

Well.  Here I am, two weeks out from Capricon 35 and I still sound like shit.  Don’t get me wrong, I sound better than I did – a lot better – but my voice is still mostly crap, which is why I haven’t done any podcasting.  Kinda hard to do an audio podcast when your voice isn’t there.  Blargh.

I meant to write up a Capricon follow up blog post and haven’t done it.  At this point, I’m not sure I will.  The details have faded beneath a NyQuil induced haze – and that sucks.  I know that I had a great time.  I know the people there were incredibly awesome and kind and made me feel so welcomed.  Me being me, I made a point to meet and chat with anyone and everyone who was willing.  I did as many panels as they’d let me do and enjoyed every minute of it.  Audience participation was up at this con, and I liked that, too.  Nothing ever got out of hand or out of control of the moderators – which is really good – yet people had some really good, open conversations, and I love that.

Sunday night I started feeling sick.  My throat had a catch in it that made me start coughing.  All through the con, I’d been sucking on vitamin C drops as a precaution.  I washed my hands a lot.  I also ate regularly and well, and stayed hydrated.  All because I know how run down I get at a con.  Even with all that, I still managed to get sick.  By Monday, my nose was running and the coughing fits were causing my stomach to become nauseated.  And I still had to fly home.

That flight was torture.  I felt hot / feverish, my nose wouldn’t stop running, I could stop coughing – even with cough drops – in short, I was miserable.  It was snowing in Denver as we landed.  I stopped on the way home and forced myself to eat something.  I actually had to go back to the airport later and give someone a ride home – something I’d agreed to over a week before – and I was so focused on fulfilling my obligation that it never occurred to me to suggest they get a cab or something.  So I went home, slept for several hours, and then headed back to the airport while the snow was really coming down.  Bleh.

By the time I got home that night, I was absolutely miserable.  My voice was gone.  I couldn’t stop coughing, which was causing me to throw up, and I had to call in sick to work.  I was out the next 3 days, finally bowing to pressure from my boss to go in on Friday, but I was still very sick and miserable and barely left my desk while I was there.  The weekend was spent in bed.  Monday dawned and I was back at work, but still feeling bad.  I was eating again, and keeping it down, but my energy level was low.  All last week, I was hitting my bed early and sleeping hard.

The coughing is finally abated – for the most part.

But I haven’t been able to read much.  I listened to maybe 3 chapters thanks to an audio book.  Haven’t been able to write either.  My brain just isn’t in that space.  And believe me, I’ve tried.

I did manage to make a pretty decent beef stew last weekend.

The point is I’m tired of being sick.  WTF is going on, body?