I'm not a malingerer ✍️
Malingerer:
to pretend or exaggerate incapacity or illness (as to avoid duty or work)
I'm normally never sick. I need to dig deep to find a day when I was really sick in the past years. Often I feel less optimal for a day or more, which I normally bypass with working from home and some aspirin.
My wife also almost never gets sick, but when she does, she crashes for a day or two, getting back on her feet afterwards. The same with our children, they crash with high fever, getting back in tiptop shape a few days later.
Not me. I can't even remember the last time when I had a severe flu or fever. Likely my general fitness as a runner is the cause of this, making me stronger and less susceptible to real sickness. As a result, I'm never taking any sick leave.
But here I am. Home. For a week, at the recommendation of my doctor.
If you have followed my Weekly rewinds or Road to Valencia series, you might be aware I've been struggling with my health for quite a few weeks. During these weeks, everyone of the family had a period with severe sickness, while I only had mild symptoms, causing me to take it easy from time to time. However, as I kept training and remained under stress, I was never really able to get that virus out of my system. I tried with more sleep, but that alone didn't help.
I really want to feel better, so for the current week, at the advice of my doctor, I'm not doing any hard physical activity, work or anything that causes stress. I've been taking it easy. Working on this blog, my analog notes, photo editing, household lists, watching movies and tv, ... A lot of things I had or wanted to do but never found the time for.
But it feels weird. That I'm home, not working, doing these things, while I'm not severely sick. Sure, I still have constant headaches, feel tired (while I sleep a lot) and have a heavy stomach, and the whole point of being home is to rest, but sometimes I feel like I'm cheating the system with this week of sickness leave.
I keep saying, I'm not a malingerer.
Maybe it's because we're always ON, expected to perform, that we only take a step back when it's necessary, or even too late. I've been working for 20+ years and never abused the system, so I'm telling myself that it's really ok to take this week off, and longer if needed, to get back on my feet. Once I feel better, I can catch up. No need to rush and suffer more consequences on the short or long run.
And with that said, I'll take a short nap, hoping that this headache will go away.
Thanks for taking the time to read this!
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