Five things to do when you get sick

I’m sick.  I hate being sick.  Though, thinking about it, I’m not sure anyone really enjoys being sick, so maybe it goes without saying that I hate it.

When you get sick there are certain things that help speed along the recovery process.

Assemble the right combination of consumer goods. If you are lucky, you have someone in your life that likes or loves you enough to fetch these things for you, if not….  You’ll have to venture out into public on your own.   You need supplies for sickness.  Gather some combination of the following:

Sudafed

Cough drops

NyQuil/DayQuil

Puffs PLUS with ALOE (this is important, your nose will thank you)

Chicken soup/crackers/supplies for grilled cheese

Juice/Gatorade/Tea/Sprite

Vitamins

Lysol

Sleep. Lots of restful sleep and lounging.  Let your immune system fight off whatever you’re sick with.  This is a fantastic excuse to be abnormally lazy.  Enjoy it.

Fluids. Drink a ton of water.  When you can’t drink anymore water, have some Green Tea or Gatorade or Juice, and then go back to water.  I won’t recommend this often, but stay away from caffeine.  No coffee, or brown soda.  This is the worst advice ever.  But you should still follow it.

Stay home from work. Not only will you feel better, but you’ll save your co-workers from being infected with suffering.  Most people don’t follow this one.  For some reason, even people with plenty of paid sick days, still show up at work when they’re miserable.  Its ridiculous.    I do it. Whats worse is that a lot of companies don’t give sick time to their employees.  So unless you have a money cushion,( and lets face it, most of us don’t) you cant afford to lose 8+ hours from your paycheck.

Watch a movie. After 12-15 hours of a NyQuil coma, sometimes you get bored.  It’s best to pop in a movie you’ve seen a million times.  Something you can quote.  Something you don’t have to pay much attention to, so if you are inclined, you can drift off to sleep again without feeling you’re missing something.  For me the list would be, Princess Bride, Chipmunk Adventure, Oceans 11, or Lord of the Rings.  You might think Star Wars would make that list, but no.  Star Wars makes me too excited.

Hopefully, your cold/flu/whatever passes quickly and you can get back to your normal life.  After days of being sacked out on your couch its easy to go insane with stir craziness. Good luck.

What is your “sick day” routine?  What is missing from my list that you think is essential?

(Photo by: by seantoyer)

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