When I was growing up, I basically had to be a human petri dish full of streptococchus or spewing vile substances from either end in order to be qualified by my father to stay home sick. And on countless occasions, I witnessed my dad going off to work when gruesomely ill, because serving the community as a doctor and providing for his family had more of a priority than preserving his own health.
This quietly stoic “bring it on” attitude unfortunately seems to have rubbed off on me, evidenced today by the fact that I am slogging away in my cube with a 101.5 fever.
The question is — will I ever learn? (Granted I was back down to 98.6 this morning when it was time to decide whether or not to call in sick, but still…)
Ugh. After fighting the sinus infection of doom for the past couple of months, this is really getting tiresome.
…
On the plus side, I won two free 16-ounce bottles of Snapple at lunch today when I was desperate for fluids. I may not be special enough to be “one in a million,” but at least I can take comfort in the fact that I am one in sixty-four.
- Mood:sick
- Music:Foreigner - “Hot Blooded” (in my warped little mind)
7 responses so far ↓
Fevers stay down in the morning. Take a day off of work, silly. Drink lots of fluids and sleep. Stoicism sucks.
I’m too stubborn to realize that when it’s 8:30 am. If I don’t feel like complete ass when it’s time to decide, I (foolishly) assume that I’m ready to rock and roll, and that “work needs me.”
Stupid work ethic.
i always keep it in the back of my mind that if i stay home, i have less of a chance to spread it to co-workers… thereby saving them from having to take off work to heal themselves.
That would be a more important factor to me if my boss hadn’t told me I need a new thermometer when I told her what my temp was. (Now up to 101.8. If I could only hit the odd numbers, I’d be an FM station!)
Which, after 5 years of working together, makes me feel like I wouldn’t mind being Patient Zero in some kind of The Stand or 12 Monkeys scenario.
Dude,
Go home. TEll your boss that you will work from home or whatever, but Dr. Keridwen sez that you need massive quantities of water, juice, and kitty snuggles, STAT!
BTW, I understand about the stoicism — I’ve come in with a 102 temp to get invoices out. yep, I am crazy too.
hrm. well, let’s hope she contracts it, shall we?
I am so with you on this one… for our father you had to be refusing food or have a very high fever. To this day I have trouble calling off!
There should be a 12 step program for this!