Operation: Shutdown

Today I am taking a sick day. I made the call to my boss promptly at eight o'clock this morning to notify her of my decision. Those calls are always a bit awkward. I say on the phone in a healthy-sounding voice, "I'm not feeling well today and am staying home," and while I hear myself saying those words I'm wondering if I shouldn't at least sound sick to make it clear I'm not just taking the day off.

But I kind of am just taking a day off. I could go to work, but I won't. I won't because I don't underestimate even trivial illnesses such as the common cold. When I am sick I begin Operation: Shutdown. I stay home, and I rest. And if I can't rest then I do something relaxing like reading or writing. And if I write some emails worth sending or a blog entry worth posting, like this very one you're reading, then I'll trudge to the library with my laptop to use the Internet. I figure a little walking and an hour or so sitting in a chair at a table isn't too bad. Only, today there aren't any chairs or tables because it's Presidents' Day, and I'm outside sitting in the shade on the concrete by the front door.

(For those of you who don't know, as a time-saving measure I don't have Internet access at home: simplicitism in practice.)

The reason I go into Operation: Shutdown for even the most mild of infections, such as this one, is that I am very susceptible to catching bronchitis. Bronchitis is neither painful nor threatening, but it greatly reduces my bicycling and other physical pursuits for two to four weeks, and that's no fun at all with my lifestyle.

I've had bronchitis about two dozen times in my life. There was a stretch of time starting in early high school and lasting till my mid-twenties in which I got it nearly every time I caught a cold, which was about twice a year. I would be sick with a cold for a few days; then I would recover; and then, horribly, my bronchi would fill up with thick mucus and it would become impossible to breathe heavily. The problem clears up on its own in about a month, and antibiotics take care of the problem in half the time, but even so it's no fun being sidelined for two weeks. I also don't like going to the doctor when I know what the problem is and just need that small slip of paper to unlock the pharmacy.

So Operation: Shutdown is all about keeping my immune system in its happiest state and the infection as far from my respiratory system as possible. And it's also about making awkward phone calls to my boss at eight o'clock in the morning.