Sick Day

Yesterday, I took the first sick day of my post doctoral career. I left work early Monday with a sore throat and the feeling of being hit by a car - and not because I had been hit by a car. Tuesday morning, I felt improvement, but decided to take the day to recuperate. Hey, I'd been here for almost 14 months and not taken a single sick day. Realistically, that was because I actually haven't been sick, not because I tend to continue to work through whatever ailment afflicting me (which I typically do).

The timing of getting the cold doesn't seem fair. I hadn't been sick in over a year and I had dropped almost thirty pounds since I started working here. Two weeks ago, I decided to make a "lifestyle change," due to rediscovering that my high blood pressure had returned. In the month leading up to this rediscovery, I had been extremely inactive, eating poorly, not drinking enough water, not sleeping properly and stressing myself out over various issues. I hadn't been to a doctor in over six years so I went in for a physical. There, I find out that I should probably be on medication. I managed to get approval from the doctor to take a trial (three month) period to try to get my blood pressure under the guideline maximum. So, I've been trying to force myself to get more than three hours of sleep a night I had been getting. I've been eating much healthier (and off of soda entirely for nearly 2 weeks now - a personal record), drinking excessive amounts of water, getting cardio workouts in about twice a week, and trying to force my stress level down by just stepping back and trying to not worry so much. Everything seemed to be on the right track and improving and, miraculously (not really), I feel better. So I do all of these good things, and I'm rewarded by catching a cold. There is no justice.

But I'm back at work now and hoping the recovery period will be short so I can stay on track with my recent health push. I am trying to lose another 2o pounds slowly over the next several months and we'll see if I have any success in dropping the old blood pressure before I keel over. Wish me luck!



On a different topic: Welcome home Megan, it's nice to have you back!