Sick

I have a crummy immune system. I think I always have. It's not that I get horrible diseases. I just get all of the little ones - mainly colds and flus.

It's a familiar cycle:

1. Do something bad for my immune system (e.g. drink too much, get no sleep, etc.)
2. Start to feel a sore throat
3. Sit by helplessly as the sore throat turns into an inferno
4. Get sniffly, sneezy, achey, and stuffy headed to the point of disfunction
5. Cough for about three weeks.

Just like everyone else, I try all the latest, hipest remedies, but the cycle remains largely unaffected. I've tried vitamin C megadosing, drowning myself in fluids, Echinacea (now proven to be snake oil), Homeopathics like Oscillococcinum, tea, honey, chicken soup, etc. And somehow I always manage to have one day of dread knowing what's coming, a couple days of misery, a couple more days of embittered sniffling, and weeks of nagging cough.

Over the past year, I have been trying a new strategy that has worked very well. Wanna know what it is?

Sleep.

Previously, I would only stay home from work if I was too sick to work. This was my major mistake. By the time I feel that bad, there is no amount of rest or remedy that will break the sick cycle.

Now, when I feel like I am certain the sick is coming on... I just don't get out of bed. Even though I'm able to work, I set out to kill the virus as a first priority. I just call in sick, albeit a little guilt ridden, and sleep until I am totally unable to stay in bed anymore.

The result: One day off of work... and then.... nothing. Totally fine. No sneeze, no sniffle, no cough.

I wonder why no one has ever pushed this remedy on me before. I suppose because you can't bottle it and sell it in a health food store.

Someone get me a Nobel prize.