When I call in to work it's always for a damn good reason. Not just because I'm being a wuss or don't want to work...
Or a story of “Hah see I told you so!”
Yesterday I headed to the folks to spend time with them and the girls and make sugar cookies. It was going well up until I began to sneeze. A lot. You ever sneeze just one after the other? I sneezed 17 times in a row at one point and I finally had to give in and take a benedryl. And this is after sneezing several times over the last hour or so.
Now this isn't a bad allergy attack for me, no this is a hey this is annoying but I’m still mostly functioning so huzzah! They get much, much worse. Sooooo much worse but that’s for another story. But within the hour I was tired, struggling to concentrate and easily distracted or worse staring off into the distance as something caught my eye and I just got stuck there and that’s the benedryl. It’s how I react to it and that’s a single pill! I often have to take two!!!
I eventually wound up sleeping in one of niece's beds for a few hours because I just couldn’t function and when I did wake up I was finally mostly human again albeit a bit scatter brained. But it was funny cus when I finally went down stairs my Dad made the comment "Wow you were really out of it. I don't think I've ever seen you like that!" and my Dad was my boss (now retired) and I looked at him and laughed and said "Yeah this is how I get when I have to treat my allergies. I sometimes have to take two benedryl because on top of sneezing I often have an eye or two trying to swell shut, rashes, lungs may try to shut down and such. It's why I have to call in. I struggled to make sugar cookies you saw that first hand, yet you thought I was overreacting when I said I wasn't safe to drive a 40 ton weapon, aka a bus." Like up until now he never believed me when I said I was unsafe!
But I think what really got me was this is my Dad and even though I no longer live with them and even he thought I was just overreacting or being whimpy by calling in and not dealing with my allergies. And it took him seeing me first hand reacting to the meds that help me cope with such severe allergies to understand I was truly being safe not only for myself but everyone around me by staying home. Like seriously you thought I was lying all these years and just being a drama queen?
It's just frustrating that we have a society that assumes you're just taking the lazy way out, being a giant wuss or what have you when it comes to calling in when your’e sick. Especially with things like allergies, mental illness and not just hey I'm dying from the flu and even then you better have a doctor's note stating "Hey they are dying so don't judge them"...and even then a lot of folks are just like "Well I'd still come in".
Just uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh. But I'm glad he finally, FINALLY saw this and truly is sympathetic now. You would not believe the fights I've had with my Dad over this! Sometimes people are so quick to judge and judge harshly because they’ve never had to deal with it and it’s so frustrating to be seen as weak when it’s something you can’t help or in this case trying to do what is safe and getting thrown under the bus as it were.
I know I’m weak health wise. I have bad allergies, like the doc is talking chemo to kill off the cells that react and cause the reaction! I have chronic asthma and my lungs can shut down within minutes. It’s especially fun when allergies cause the asthma attacks it adds a whole new level of hell to drowning in your own lungs! I also have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) type 2 so my joints are loose, tendons and skin also shift more then normal. It effects how I heal and I don’t make scabs. A simple paper cut takes two months to heal and will leave a scar. Every cut, prick, tear scars and does not heal normal. I can’t even get tattoos because the ink will push out and the skin will just scar. So that’s two autoimmune diseases and allergies! And I have scoliosis of the spine with the arthritis of a 50 year old! So my back like to go out and I have ribs that pop out of my spine and knock every now and then. And I struggle with some nasty depression, but who doesn’t these days?
I have some bad health cards, not terribly and certainly there are folks out there with far worse to deal with. Most days I don’t let these things stop me. Hell I had a tumor removed, five inches taken out of my right leg and backside with 26 stitches and I was back at work 4 days later. Driving a bus on an ice pack and a pillow and kept driving even when the stitches were doing the cheese wire effect to my flesh! And remember I take longer to heal then most so I dealt with this for months getting the wound to heal fully!
I consider myself a pretty damn tough cookie most days. But when I call in it truly is because I’m not safe. And finally, FINALLY my Dad saw and that I wasn’t just lying or being a wuss! Vindication after 30+ years!!!! And he knows about all my health problems!!! But I wish that people wouldn’t assume when folks call in that they are lying and just trying to get out of work. I like to think most of us are being sincere when we call in sick.
I love putting on music while I study. Nothing like peacefully finishing an essay on American politics when you suddenly hear a random gunshot through your headphones and wonder when and why you put anything from Assassins on this playlist.
Today I’m thinking about my Year 9 Spanish teacher who, while teaching us how to say different kinds of food in Spanish, proudly declared that she was so good at staying healthy that she’d “never eaten a JFK”.
She meant KFC. Not even John Weidman could’ve made that one up.
Whoever made Aether Ridge and it's like gazillion subregions is evil as shit. WHO PUTS FAKE POLES IN A ROOM WHERE ONE WRONG MOVE MEANS PLUMMETING TO YOUR DEATH???
DO NOT TRUST THOSE BLANK ACCOUNTS ASKING FOR MONEY DO NOT TRUST THEM THOSE ARE SPAM BOTS I REPEAT THOSE ARE SPAM BOTS I GOT LIKE 5 OF THEM MASS PINGING ME IN THE PAST 2 DAYS I REPEAT DO NOT TRUST THEM THEY'RE SPAM BOTS DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR MONEY THEY ARE SPAM BOTS!!!!!!!!!!
