I have noticed an interesting pattern recently. It goes like this:
- One evening: Hmm, I don’t feel well. Must be the usual chronic illness stuff.
- The next day: Wow, I feel really bad. This CI stuff is acting weird.
- That night: Oh boy, this is not only bad, but also not quite the same as the usual CI stuff.
- The next day: I’ll just push through. It’s probably a mini flare. Be quiet voice-in-the-back-of-my-head! I don’t want to hear this is something else.
- That night: Oh crap, I think I’m sick.
- The next day: Oh boy, I’m DEFINITELY sick!
And that’s what happened this weekend. It took two days of feeling guilty and trying to push through before I realized I was sick. Then I spent an entire day on the couch watching tv, not even trying to do anything “productive,” and I felt so much better afterwards!
It’s hard when you have a chronic illness and have “sick” symptoms on a regular basis. You have to keep living your life, and often, resting wouldn’t help anyway. But sometimes it’s actually a bug, and rest is just what you need. Then it’s important to give yourself that rest.
I’m not back to “normal” yet today, but I feel SO much better. Maybe one day I’ll listen to that voice in the back of my head and realize I’ve got a bug a lot sooner. I haven’t figured that part out yet, but hopefully one day I will.
And in the meantime, I hope you all can give yourselves time to rest and recover when you get a bug. It’s lousy when it happens, but at least, unlike chronic illness, it’s temporary!
