Midweek update: sick

After a great weekend, I fell sick Monday evening. The AC in the office was extremely strong and I had to sit in the coldest room for 4 hrs. By the time I left the office, I was feeling super cold that could not warm up despite a hot bath and was developing a headache. That night I went to bed at 7pm, knowing that probably I was falling sick.

Tuesday: I woke up 5:40am, with headache, stomach pain, and fatigue. Not good. I took temperature and indeed I had fever, not high but fever nevertheless. I decided to rest at home, went to get a 2 hours massage with hot stone. I felt better after it and went to office to attend 3 meetings. I got back home and could feel getting warmer. Fever went up again, headache got worse, went to bed 6;30pm and fell asleep 7pm. The whole night I could feel headache.

Wednesday: woke up again 5:40am, with strong headache and weaker than the day before. I was supposed to fly to Vietnam for a work retreat. Not happening. I informed my manager, travel agent and organizer that I will not join. My fever was not that high but headache was killing me, and the general fatigue. I couldn’t sit for more than few minutes, just wanted to lie flat. I watch an Argentina movie in the morning, then took a nap, woke up not feeling better. My stomach was super weak too, like it couldn’t handle any food or drink, not that I had appetite for anything. By 4pm, given how little I have progressed in 48 hrs, I decided to go to the doctor just in case something worse than a cold. The doctor checked for dengue, covid, and influenza, all negative. Blood markers for viral or bacteria infection were inconclusive. So I left the doctor office without any medication as the doctor wanted to observe for another 24-36 hours to see if I need antibiotics. I went home, feeling a bit better actually, less headache and fever has came down further. I didn’t fall asleep by 7pm, in fact I watched few episodes of Mr Ripley, read a bit in bed, finally fell sleepy by 8:30pm.

Thursday: woke up 5:40am again, fortunately without severe headache and no fever. According to my oura ring, I still had fever overnight and I feel it’s gone by the morning. I feel a bit stronger. Stomach is still not normal. But I think I’m done with the worst part. Hopefully I continue to improve so I can go to Manila with the girls.

Thanks to blog, I could check when was the last time I was sick, it was Feb 2023, and it was not as bad as this time around.

Fortunately I had no race to run, no family trip to go, work trip is not a big deal to skip. And overall, I didn’t miss for being sick, rather gives me time to relax and catch up movies and reading. And most important of all, I got to appreciate the full energy side of me. The idea of running is frightening to me now, I can barely stand or sit. It gives me such appreciation of when I’m not sick, which I often take for granted as see it as my default state.

And what caused getting sick this time?

– work has been hectic and stressful last week

– I haven’t taken any rest day from running for 7 days to cope with work stress

– cold environment in the office

So I guess my immune system couldn’t cope with all the stress and gave up to force me to rest.