Rest - Part 2
About a week and two days ago I wrote about rest and how I pretty much slept all day.
Well, the day after I was quite active. I re-arranged my living room and de-cluttered, in someways. In other ways, I made more of a mess that still requires some cleaning up. I met with a friend and went for a walk. I did my laundry. Laundry is one of the household tasks that remains the most challenging for me physically.
I felt a bit off and decided to order in dinner, instead of cooking. That night, I didn’t sleep well at all (which is unusual for me).
On Monday, I woke up feeling ill, possibly a fever, and abdominal cramps, muscle soreness and stiffness, fatigue, and diarrhea. I hardly ate a thing and drinking was so uncomfortable, yet necessary to prevent dehydration. My body was working hard to heal.
On Tuesday, my symptoms worsened. I woke up with a headache and every time I moved I felt like I was going to pass out. It took all the energy I had to get up to go to the washroom. I called in sick to work that day.
I haven’t been sick in over two years. I haven’t been this sick in who knows how long. Was it COVID? That was an additional layer to navigate. But thankfully, no, it wasn’t covid.
In the past I would soothe the illness or ‘help’ it by consuming antihistamines, drinking NeoCitran. This time I saw it and thought about it and said, no, I’m trying this other way this time, where I support my body with what it asks for during this time that I’m sick. My body is fighting germs in my system- it was made for this. So no drugs, careful monitoring, easily digestible foods, lots of clear fluids, and something with electrolytes.
The fever broke that afternoon.
Day 3 new symptoms, on top of the ones I was experiencing. Dry cough, a tiny bit of a soar throat, heaviness in my chest, and shortness of breath. My body was working hard to fight the illness. I called my doctor, who suggested a covid test because I had all but one of the symptoms. I concurred and got one.
Day 4, most symptoms decreased and I felt like I had a bit more energy. I started eating more, my appetite was increasing, I started to do little things around the house and have more interest in reading and writing and working.
Day 5 - I felt better. Still some fatigue, but largely back to pre-illness state.
Day 6 - cooking and eating normally. No symptoms.
Each step of the way, I listened to what I needed. I had an emergency plan in case the illness got worse quickly. I looked up so many things about Covid and got the lay of the land of what I needed to know.
I RECOVERED IN 6 DAYS!!!! From what was characterized as a viral infection of sorts.
I’ve been sick many times in my life time with varying degrees of infection. Every viral infection I’ve had lasted for a minimum of two weeks with a lingering cough several weeks after that, for which I have been prescribed steroid puffers to speed up healing.
So what’s the difference? How am I healing so quickly now? Here are the variables I see that were at play:
I take really great care of my body now and have learned to listen to what it needs in the moment
I listened to what it needed and gave it exactly what it needed, when it needed it.
I have a high awareness of what is happening in my body, and even though I didn’t know I was going to get sick, I’m fairly certain that my body was already fighting the intruder last Saturday when I slept all day and drank water and ate food.
I dealt with it right away.
I let my body do it’s thing without interfering with medication. I needed to go through the pain and let it be there, not numb it. I did this safely.
I know the limits of my body and if I needed medical intervention, I trusted that I would get help.
I only did things within my limit. I didn’t force myself to go to work, or eat, or exercise, or do anything strenuous. I cancelled all the appointments I had that week.
I let people close to me know that I was sick and they checked in on how I was doing. I felt loved and supported.
I spent time in nature. Nature is one of the best healers for me.
So, I didn’t write this post to tell you how to handle your illness and experiences. I wrote this out for me, to illustrate to myself the growth I’ve experienced in trusting myself and doing what is right for me and my body, in every moment.
ISN’T THE HUMAN BODY THE MOST AMAZING THING AND SYSTEM EVER? It’s so intricate, fragile, strong, self-healing, and intelligent. All I had to do was listen to it!
Okay, I’m done now.