Mourning Luxury Sick Days

I wish I had known how luxurious sick days use to be. Not that being sick is ever fun, but I remember when it meant staying home from work, binge watching TV (and the choices for binge watching options are so much better now - it's a shame!) on the couch and sleeping soundly to the aftertaste of NyQuil.

​My sick days this past week were nothing like that.

​My thoughts on this started earlier in the week when an old pal posted this on her Facebook wall.

Granted, I'm not a SAHM, but I feel the same exact way. About life in general, and especially this week - about sick days! [Yelling] "27-year-old, cherish this lazy time on the couch! Don't take that Kleenex for granted - in five years you're going to be looking for it only to find your almost-2-year-old flushed it all down the toilet!"

I won't even go into the fact that all of my official sick leave from work for the year was already eaten up by kid doctor appointments, two kid surgeries (tubes and tonsils - two different children) and one surgery of my own (gallbladder)... Or that I actually borrowed from my vacation leave for this sick time... Those facts weren't the reason for my disappointment (though they are reason enough for sadness on their own).

All I really wanted was some down time on the couch while I overdosed on "House of Cards" or "Gilmore Girls" (two totally different genres, I know); faded in between sleep, drowsiness and awake time; didn't shower or brush my teeth; let Kleenex mounts pile up; and stayed in the same PJs for three days in a row. Just for a good visual, here's both a hilarious and humiliating picture of one such luxury sick day in college.

Note the Jack Daniels in this picture was actually for medicinary purposes - though I was also known to have sick days CAUSED by this drink, 'twas not the case this go-round.

Sick days with children in the mix are an entirely different experience. I was lucky enough for my husband to be out of town for the week and the kids were on Fall Break (oh joy!). Had it not been for our nanny watching them during the day, and staying late for the first evening to get the kids down for bed, I'm not sure what I would've done!

So instead I hunkered down in my bedroom and kept my germs to myself. Every few hours I would surface for some water and then wipe down all the surfaces I encountered to keep the kids from getting sick. I'd sneak to watch a muffled version of a show on my phone to keep inappropriate scenes shielded from my children and I'd try to sleep in between their trips up and down the stairs to "check on me" (such a sweet thought!).

Dinner time was like a free-for-all. Throw some food on the table and hope it made it into their mouths! One night they only ate tortilla chips and cheese dip. When you're sick sometimes you're just too tired to fight it...

Time for your checkup, Mommy!

Do you need a shot, Mommy?

Agh!!!! Hold me, Mommy!!!

Obviously, I survived. But being sick put the whole household back a week... Three days later and I'm still climbing out from under backed-up laundry and piles of toys. Not to mention the bad habits I let them get away with during that time off...

No wisdom to share here - mostly just venting and mourning those old sick days when "rest" was part of the medicine. 

How do you survive sick days? And recover from the aftermath? I need some tips!