When Mommy Post-Doc Gets Sick

What can I say...I have two little kids in daycare, and I've managed to dodge a few bullets this year already (when child 2 had hand-foot-and-mouth for the 3rd time and when both boys have had the dreaded ear goo), so it's bound to happen that I get a cold eventually.

Both kids have been coughing for a while (although not acting sick, and no fever to be had), and my other half had a nasty cough a week or so ago.  Tuesday of last week I woke up with what I thought were allergies.  Then my nose started to drip spontaneously at work (not good when working in a lab, f.y.i.).  This continued onto Wednesday and into Thursday, where on Thursday I thought it best to do the NyQuil thing at night.  Friday I took a half day, head throbbing, coughing, sniffling and all of that (the prototypical NyQuil commercial).  Saturday I added a sore ear to the mix, and without really getting any better over the weekend, I came to work today (Monday) because I want to work and I have loads to get done!

So here I sit, my ear plugged up, making it hard to hear (it sounds like there's a piece of wax paper pulled taught over it, so everything, especially voices, vibrates!).  My eyes are behaving weirdly, and my contacts are getting dried out or something, making it hard to see 100% clearly.  At least my head feels OK and the nose drips are gone.  And I don't look like the walking dead, so I don't think anyone is going to send me home.

In the end, what I have decided is this.  I could be at home, resting it off, but missing out on today.  I'd rather save the sick day for when I'm really knocked-on-my-butt ill.  I have experiments planned out for this week, contingent on me starting them today, so I don't want to mess that up either.  And then there's the nights and weekends where I might not get a whole lot of rest either.  I just keep going...and somehow the constant go-go-go keeps me upright and under the illusion that I feel fine.  If I wasn't a mommy, and wasn't a post-doc, then I might be home.  Or at least getting the rest after work that I could really use.