Of all of the many blessings that I have in my life, I think that the blessing of health has to be one of the easiest to overlook. It is not really something that you notice until it is gone, (hopefully only temporarily) and it is VERY easy to forget how miserable being sick is. So I decided to write this post about being sick because it is something that I experienced for the first time in a while this morning while I was at church. There were a lot of thoughts that came to me on sickness while I repeatedly got up through the first few hours of church to get some fresh air. Most of them revolved around how miserable being violently sick on an empty stomach with a headache during sacrament meeting at 8:30 in the morning was, but there were a few other thoughts that are worth sharing as well. I will share those thoughts below:
1. Throwing up sucks - especially when you are sick enough that you are doing it multiple times in a relatively short period of time. There is just nothing quite as humbling as kneeling next to a toilet bowl just waiting for the next stomach convulsion to hopefully bring the relief you are looking for. Throwing up also seems to be one of those things that I feel like you want to do in private. Waiting for everyone currently in the restroom to leave while you try to hold your embarrassment off for a few more seconds is definitely not fun either. I am not sure right now whether it is worse to get sick on a full stomach or an empty one, but I think they are both pretty terrible for different reasons. Not something I will go into on here, but I think it suffices to simply say they both are very bad.
2. Sleep is necessary - if you want to avoid the pitfalls outlined above about being sick. I have never been very good at getting enough sleep. Lack of sleep however has never really been something that had a noticeable negative affect on me. What I have noticed though is that there seems to be a fundamental change to the amount of sleep your body needs once you graduate from college and move on to your career. When I was in school late nights either out with my friends, or up doing homework were the norm. I had no problem going to bed late, getting up early, making it to class and feeling just fine. Since I graduated from school and started a job though, I can barely function if I don't get 7+ hours of sleep. I believe this was a determining factor in why I got sick today at church. I woke up today after about 5 or 6 hours of sleep to make my 7:30am meetings and I had a headache. That coupled with the lack of time to get myself anything to eat contributed to the first time I have really felt sick in a significant period of time. I don't know how I am going to do another year of church at 8:30 in the morning, but that is a topic for another post.
3. Moms have magical healing powers - even when they don't do anything at all. I arrived at my parents house from church early since I was feeling sick. My mother was in the process of getting ready for church and was surprised to see that I was there. I explained to her that I was sick and she talked to me for a few minutes about it and told me I needed to go lay down and take a nap. She made sure that I had taken some medicine for my headache and instructed me to get some sleep. That was it. Nothing crazy or miraculous, no special recipes or remedies, but I felt better. I think just talking to a mom about feeling sick helps in the healing process. Which brings me to my next discovery about sickness today.
4. Being sick by yourself would be terrible - because you need someone to commiserate with you about the sickness to begin the healing process I believe. I know that there is probably no medical evidence behind that crazy assertion, but I just can't imagine how much it would stink to be sick by yourself and not have anyone to talk to about it. When you are at home you hopefully have a parent (preferably a Mom) to talk to, at school your roommates will have to make do, once you are married you have a spouse that will help take care of you. I am a firm believer after today that being sick and not having anyone who cares at all would make any sickness much more difficult to overcome. Maybe that is why they always seem to want to get a hold of family members of people in hospitals to come visit or make aware of the situation. Probably not the only reason for that, but maybe at least part of the reason.
There are actually a few more discoveries I made about being sick today, but I feel like this is a good enough start for now. Perhaps next time I get sick I can touch on those other areas and any new ones I realize. Hopefully that won't be for a long time, because even though I was only sick for a little bit today it is not something I want to be repeating any time soon. I will mention that I am going to strive to be a bit more aware and grateful for the health that I do have every day from now on. I can't imagine what having a perpetual sickness would be like, but I feel for those that have to struggle with that. My experience was nothing compared to what they have to deal with I am sure, but it served as a gentle reminder to me about the importance of taking care of my body and being grateful for the wonderful gift it is. 11-14-10
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