muychingon

Its been going around, that nasty pain inducing flu. I got it, my friend at work got it, my girlfriend’s got it. It sucks, I haven’t felt this sick in a long time, maybe even since 99 or 2000 when I spent almost 2 weeks in bed because of a flue gone bad.

This time I noticed I was starting to cough, it was a dry cough; my eyes felt hot and were watering at random. I thought it was allergies but my normal dose of claritin-D proved useless and thats when I realized I was going to get sick. I bailed from work last Thursday, about an hour shy of my full day. Headed to Starbucks for a hot cocoa and then went home. Once I was home it all went down hill from there. The headache became unbearable and my temperature shot up to 101, 102, it hit 103 before I jumped in the shower to try to cool off. My night was sleepless but it helped that my girlfriend came over and made a great chicken soup. The next morning things weren’t any better and I stayed home as well; I thought this would be the worse of it and I would be up and running by Saturday. I was wrong.

It is now Tuesday and just now I’m feeling better, not well enough to go to work but much better than I did Saturday or Sunday. Two days ago I decided that it might not be just the flu so I went to the doctor. The waiting room had a few other people that seemed okay compared to me, but there was one lady that was interrible condition. Her cough sounded like an old car that wouldn’t start and her eyes were as red as as a cherry. I was concerned that I would pick something else besides my ailing flu so I stepped outside and told the nurse I would wait out there. Eventually I got to see the doctor, she said I had the flu and early onset of bronchitis. I got amoxicillin prescribed with the recommendation to use Robitussin DM for the cough, and Motrin or advil or some sort of ibuprofen for the body aches and fever. The cough syrup worked really well, about 20 minutes after taking my first dose my nose cleared up and the cough diminished to maybe once every few hours. Motrin is my prefered pain reducer so I already knew it was working but I could still feel my back ache a little. It felt like the day after you start hell’s week in high school sports.

I’m much better now, I’m sitting up and walking around and even though I still get tired really easily, I don’t feel like I want to just curl up in a ball and die. But this got me wondering… Why don’t employers do a better job of preventing this kind of thing?

I should have taken a flu shot, but I didn’t. Last time I did, it simply sent me into a 3 day bed stay with the flu, so I thought I’d take my chances this year as I have done in the past 3 years. I eat a heatlhy diet and exercise regularly, I also drink more water than anyone I know so I thought my chances were pretty good. But the problem here was that people that are sick continue to go to the office. I seriously want to curse them and my boss along with them for not sending them home. I mentioned this to my doctor and she just rolled her eyes and commented on how ridiculous it is that people continue to show up at the office when they know they are sick.

I have to agree with her, it is ridiculous. Not only is it disrespectful and down-right offensive, it is dangerous. If you show up to the workplace sick, you are just creating more problems for yourself. A week later, when you are better then someone else is now sick and the cycle continues. There is no good reason to do this, stay home sleep it off and come back when you are better. I know for our workplace, we have a VPN (virtual private network) in place that allows you to connect to the office and do ALL of your work from home; use it! You are not in a time race to find the cure for cancer so trust me, your work can take a backseat while you recover from an illness. Your body will thank you and your co-workers will appreciate your efforts to stop spreading crap around.

One of the reasons I have heard for coming into work is “well I don’t want to get my kids and wife sick.” Well whoop ti freakin do, do you think we want to pickup your illness and bring it to OUR home? How about you close the door to your room, get some good ventilation through a window and tell your kids you can’t see them much because you don’t want to get them sick. Your spouse is already been exposed to you because I presume you are sleeping in the same room so he/she will have to just hope for the best. But I feel better now, is another big excuse. If you’re coughing uncontrollably and your body aches and your nose is runny or you sound congested, I don’t care if you feel like a million bucks. You are not well and shouldn’t be there. Go home!

It really is time to come to terms with the fact that you need to get rest to get better. I hate missing work, I hate missing 3 days of work, but I also hate extending 3 days of illness to 15 because I didn’t let my body recover in the first place. I can’t emphasize it enough! If you feel sick, go to the doctor and confirm if you are sick. If so, STAY HOME. If you’re a boss, supervisor, or in some sort of authoritative position, you should be sending people home when they’re sick. There is no excuse, seriously stop the cycle.

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