Don’t you hate it when illness sneaks up on you and body slams you when you least expect it? This is what happened to me recently.

I awoke on Wednesday feeling a little irritation in my lungs, that little tingle in the center of your chest that tells you something’s up. I marched off to work early in the morning. I dealt with the pressures of the work day and developed a low grade fever and a slight cough.

The next morning I drove into work and felt about the same only with more congestion. By mid shift I had a runny nose, a congested cough and was sneezing like crazy. I was miserable and could barely concentrate on anything I was doing. My hands were raw from hand washing and opening little pill packages all day long, my lips dry from days with little to no water.

Admittedly, I wasn’t taking care of myself these past few weeks. Not eating well, not drinking enough water, letting stress get the best of me….

Today, I missed a field trip to MOSI with my husbands class today because I am so sick. I barely got out of bed at 9 am this morning, because I was so hot. My dogs flanked me in the bed. That didn’t help.

I sat on my couch watching DVR’d episodes of Grey’s Anatomy and Private practice not moving a muscle, still in my PJ’s. I had a great deal of trouble opening a bottle of Gatorade. I felt too weak. I had a couple of frozen waffles to eat. It was a pathetic picture.

I feel asleep around noon for about 45 minutes on the couch, after which I decided to felt okay enough to take a shower. Then I let my dogs out the back door for a pee. Then Alton Brown taught me about sushi and sashimi.

Three Mucinex, four bottles of purple Gatorade later and coughing my head off for hours I can breathe again and feel a little more human.