Getting Back to Normal

I hate being sick. I hate it. I'm just now getting back to feeling somewhat normal. A couple of weeks ago I started having a sore throat off and on and then a nagging little pain in my left side. I didn't pay too much attention to it because I was busy with other things. I had also started walking regularly on the treadmill again and thought that maybe it was just that. Then each day of last week it seemed to take me longer and longer to finish two miles. By Friday I was just plodding along wondering why I felt so awful. By Saturday my throat was really sore, my left side was swollen and so tender I couldn't touch it, and I was running a fever. Besides all of this I was incredibly tired. I was falling asleep wherever and whenever. I had actually been taking naps during the afternoons the whole week before, but again I thought it was just all the busy-ness catching up with me. This was something different. I just wanted to sleep! Also at the end of last week a case of conjunctivitis was trying to catch me and wearing my contacts became impossible. On Monday morning it occurred to me that all my symptoms somehow seemed familiar and that I should know what ailed me.........then it hit me. Mononucleosis! I got to the computer as fast as I could make myself get there, and started researching. Sure enough, every symptom was there. I even read where the Epstein-Barr virus (which is the bug that causes mono) can manifest as conjunctivitis (pinkeye) in some people. Well, now. The only question was, where did I get it?! Then I remembered Tom not feeling well about three weeks ago, with a sore throat, swollen glands, a fever, and falling asleep very easily. He was even coming home early from Sam's because he said he was just "too tired and felt like he could sleep forever". Mono can be caught just like a cold - being around someone who has sneezed or coughed. Being called the "kissing disease" is an old wives' tale. It isn't spread quite as easily as a cold, but does spread in the same way. Anybody who knows me knows that I don't go to the doctor unless I feel it's life-threatening, so I didn't go. Besides, it's a virus, and there's nothing that can be done except to let it take it's course. Antibiotics are useless unless you develop something bacterial. I wasn't fooling around with my swollen spleen though, and was very careful of what I did because I didn't want a rupture to happen. It was so huge that my clothes were uncomfortable. I didn't do anything except lie around for two days (that's pretty much all I felt like doing - I was out of it). By yesterday I was having moments of feeling back to normal and my side was less tender and the swelling was going down. This morning I feel much better, and my side is only tender in one spot with no swelling felt. I haven't had a fever since Sunday, so I might just make it after all! And I'm able to wear my contacts again. Thank the Lord - I'm as blind as a bat without them! I'm wrestling with myself this morning, though, because I really want to get outside and cut the grass and do some weeding because the weather is very nice right now, but I know I should still be resting. In any case, I am very grateful to be feeling better. Being sick is for the birds!