Over the past three weeks, my house has been inundated with what we are referring to as “DeathPlague9000™”, some versions of which come with a healthy case of conjunctivitis. I was the last one in the house to acquire DeathPlague9000™, and boy, did I get it. I even got the fun version with conjunctivitis, or as I’m calling this one: DeathPlague12000™. I spent all but 16 hours between Wednesday and Saturday squirreled away in my “plague cocoon” sleeping. Sunday was the first day I had enough energy to sit at my desk and get some work done.
Today, the only parts of the illness that are still persisting are a bit of lightheadedness and weakness – possibly a bit of dehydration causing that; a very marginal fever; and the conjunctivitis, which looks way worse than it feels. I’m glad to be back at it again in the office and I’m hoping to actually get to Cedar Rapids this Wednesday for 1 Million Cups and some time in the Vault. I’ve been trying to get up there all month, but things just have not worked out with my schedule. My daughter’s rehearsal for her dance recital was during the first Free Coworking Wednesday of the month, and she had swimming and tennis lessons during the second. Third time’s the charm, right?
Just before I really became sick, I was actually able to make it to 1 Million Cups in Iowa City – the first time in a long time. I wasn’t able to get to Open Coffee beforehand due to a prior commitment. I knew I was starting to come down with something, so I tried to shake as few hands and breathe on as few people as possible while I was out and about last Wednesday, and I left immediately after the end of the program because I could feel myself running out of steam quickly and needed to get my girls to their doctor’s appointment that morning. My younger daughter got some eyedrops for her conjunctivitis, and my older daughter and I walked away with some information on how to keep hydrated during this illness. The older one hadn’t been eating and had been vomiting what she did try to eat.
I’m so glad the girls are both healthy again. I truly wish this plague on nobody. It goes after just about every part of your body, and you feel miserable for the better part of a week. Even being 90% over this thing isn’t enough – that last 10% is almost worse than the other 90%. At least I didn’t have a headache when I woke up this morning, which is the first time in nearly a week. I’ve sucked down so much ibuprofen over the last week, I finally burned through the giant bottle of the stuff I bought months ago and had to get more while I was out today. What also didn’t help is that for a couple of days in the middle of the illness, I wasn’t in the mood for my morning coffee (yes, I passed up coffee!) The bad part about this is that I was getting my caffeine-withdrawal headache around 6 pm because I wasn’t sucking down my 3+ cups in the morning. Oh caffeine, I can’t quit you.
So, I have a lot of work to catch up on this week. I spent most of Sunday cleaning out my e-mail, and I spent today doing a bunch of the fun administrative stuff that goes along with running your own business. I have some Web sites to build out over the next few weeks, and a couple of clients that need some follow up. Hopefully, I’ll continue feeling better all week, and I can put DeathPlague12000™ behind me.