Urgh (but also, let's go!)

I slept well last night, but I still woke early due to having a coughing fit at 7 AM. Usually, I'd try to get back to sleep but I knew immediately that that was me for the day. So I'm up, showered and ready to go. There's adulting to be done today and I am strangely motivated, so let's go.

With regards to the coughing fit and the current lurgy, the cough is gradually getting worse, but there aren't really any other symptoms to speak of. Let's hope that continues. A sore throat/cough I can deal with, but my eyes have a tendency to get sore when looking at screens when I get a cold (or similar illness), and that's my job, so I'd like to avoid that.

*yawn*

The illness I reported a few days ago hasn't really gotten any better (or worse for that matter). The lack of sleep over the past few days hasn't helped though. I should have logged off from work a couple of hours ago due to a few long days this week, but the urgent work I mentioned before has only now been resolved.

I reckon that means an early finish at some point next week. 

Cough, cough.

Yup, I'm definitely coming down with something. The cough is more pronounced today, my eyes are watering and I'm a bit wheezy in the chest. Sigh. That'll teach me to leave the house.

And I'm meant to be going to my sister's this evening to help my nephew with some computer stuff.

And I'm meant to be in the office tomorrow.

Let's see how this works out. 

Cough.

I think I might be paying for being social at the weekend. I woke this morning with a minor headache, a blocked nose, a tickly throat and a bit of a cough.

I'm hoping that I'll shake it off soon. I've always been relatively resistant to cold and flu-like illnesses which never really develop beyond these kinds of minor symptoms. Even the few times I think I've had Covid, it was little more than a lack of energy and, during the first time, a lack of smell and taste for a week.

I'm also meant to be at an event this evening with BR and his wife, so it'd be nice if I didn't get more unwell in the next six hours.

Ooooft.

One of the more interesting symptoms of the illness that I've had over the past two weeks was the sudden and absolute disappearance of my libido. Don't get me wrong, I'm currently single and haven't had sex in a while, so it's not like I have a partner who's feeling neglected, but I do regularly and frequently masturbate.

But not in the past two weeks. I've not given any women a thought until last night/this morning where I woke with CH on my mind, but still, it must be years since I last had a period this long where I never thought about sex or needed to ease the pressure. In fact, the last time I can recall was probably mid-2015, so that's a decade ago. I've not thought about CH in a long time, so her appearance in my thoughts this morning in an x-rated way is kind of surprising.

Long time...

I was in touch with Nerdy Girl a few days back. I've not seen her since the end of December, but a couple of illnesses and this foot thing still steadfastly refusing to go away and the weather have meant that I wasn't interested in going for a walk.

But she's in London for a few days and said she'll be in touch when she gets back. I forgot that I've got work stuff all next week, so it'll be at least a week until I see her, but I'm looking forward to it. 

Urgh.

I'm still off work sick. I logged on to work on Monday morning but was still feeling off and hadn't slept well on Sunday night. In fact, last night was the first proper night's sleep I've had in a week. I'll probably take tomorrow off, too, then return to work on Thursday. I kinda don't have any wiggle room on that - if I'm not well enough to return to work on Thursday, tough. But at least at that point, it's only two days until the weekend.

I'm going to message D, FBS etc. tomorrow and let them know I won't be out on Friday. Even if I am fully recovered by tomorrow (which I won't be), I don't want to be going out on Friday and having a skinful of booze after ten days of illness, dehydration etc. Terribly sensible of me, even though I was really looking forward to being social and going to the pub, but there will be other opportunities.

Sunday Night Blues

I wouldn't say that I was getting better, but the symptoms have changed over the past few days. In addition to the cough (which still persists, btw), I've had a few days of my hands and feet being permanently cold, though that's back to normal. I've lost my senses of taste and smell. I'm now considering that whatever it is that I've got, is not the same chest infection I was off with at the start of January, but rather Covid.

And my sleep has been better over the past few nights. I'm getting a good few hours per night instead of the one, at best, I was getting on Wednesday and Thursday. But I would still love a complete night's rest. 

Regardless, I'm back at work tomorrow. The past few days that I've taken off were not sick days but my own personal leave allocation. I can't afford to use up any more leave, especially seeing as the core symptoms (this cough) is not showing any signs of going away. Plus I reckon I can fudge a quiet day at work.

I've already shared this with FBS, D etc. so the plans for next Friday are in jeopardy. They've agreed to postpone if I am still ill, though I think they should go out without me.

Urgh. Cough, cough, cough.

The cough mentioned in my last post has been extremely persistent over the past few days to the point where I've barely had any sleep. And that has had a knock-on effect of me taking some time off work because I can't function when I have the lurgy and no sleep. To be honest, the lack of sleep alone would be enough, but I'm not a good patient and my throat is raw due to the cough.

So, yeah, I've not been well this week. It does seem to be easing, so hopefully I'll finally get a good night's sleep tonight.

Bah.

For the second time in a month, I find myself with some kind of illness. Overnight, I've developed a cough that seems quite persistent. This is unusual because I'm usually quite resistant to cold-like illnesses to the point where I never really suffer from full-on colds or flu.

I suspect I picked this up at a funeral that I attended on Friday, probably from my sister.

Let's go.

I should be back to work tomorrow as I think I've shifted the illness. Or at least, I've shifted the symptoms of the illness that were keeping me awake at night, and it was the lack of sleep more than anything that was keeping me off work.

But I also wanted to mention the foot injury. At the start of December, I thought I was well on my way to healing. it had been mostly pain-free for about a week, then I went bowling and it all came back again. I'm in the same position again - I've been pain free for around a week. I'll not be launching into exercise this week, but rather just getting back into the swing of things.

I'll re-evaluate if I manage to get to two weeks pain free.

I feel like tomorrow is the start of the new year - the past week or so not counting due to the illness ruling me out of pretty much anything.

So deep breaths, take it a step at a time.

Yawn.

This throat thing is really pissing me off. I had yet another night of little sleep. I was asleep by midnight, awake roughly around 1:30 AM and I probably didn't get back to sleep again until near 6 AM before waking around 9 AM.

I have a splitting headache, my eyes are sore and I'm feeling really lethargic. I feel like I've not actually started a new year yet, so I still have to get into my weight loss plan when I feel better again (and I always get lazy/de-motivated when ill).

Lazy.

I'm still in bed, I'm not going into work today and this throat infection and cough, whatever it is, is annoying me. I was planning on going back to work tomorrow, but I really can't be arsed and chances are, I'm not going to sleep well tonight. I've not slept well at all this week.

I need to get out of bed, showered and possibly pop to the shops. I need some medicine for the throat thing and possible a birthday card for KfW2. I've been pondering the card thing for a few days. I can't get her out for her birthday. I'm still waiting to take her out for last year's, and she doesn't do anything for mine any more. Back in the day, I could have gotten her out for drinks, I'd get a card, she might pop into the house with the kids and a small cake. But for the past few years, bar a text message, nothing.

But I know that I'll do it anyway, cos she's my friend. And I'm a sucker for a pretty face, as USHW has told me in the past.

Urgh.

I've taken the day off work. It remains to be seen if this will be a sick day or a PTO day. I didn't get any sleep again last night due to this illness. it's not the illness that's the problem - that's "just" a sore throat and a cough. I'm useless with a lack of sleep and that can often mean sore eyes (when using screens) and a splitting headache.

In all likelihood, it'll probably be a sick day or two and I'll not go back to work until the end of the week.

Let's go!

My sleep over the past few nights has been appalling. I've not gotten a lot of good quality sleep. if that happens again tonight, I'll have to consider taking a day off work because I can hardly keep my eyes open and I have a splitting headache probably due to fatigue.

However, I can recall a couple of dreams, both of which featured something in common - they took place somewhere foreign, hot and sunny. At least one dream was extremely sexual - I'd booked a villa somewhere nice and I spent a week with a companion swimming in the pool, relaxing and pretty much having sex in, on and over everything. my companion was known to me, but I can't remember who. FBS, maybe? USHW? I genuinely can't remember.

But with the weather being miserable at the moment, going somewhere hot and sunny would be bliss right now.

Plans

G sent an email last night. He's thinking about coming home in two weeks.  Was I available on the Saturday, either afternoon or evening, to meet up? I certainly am!

There's also a potential night out with The Crowd, but no-one's said anything so far.

Not that I'm complaining at the moment. I have a lurgy right now - a sore throat - and am feeling really, really low energy and sorry for myself. I didn't sleep a wink last night, so that's added a splitting headache to the mix and I am not a good patient.

Is it?

I needed to go to the local shopping centre and I've pretty much not left the house in three weeks because of the illness. It's a lovely day here, so the thought of wandering around for an hour, listening to music and getting in some provisions and clothes was very appealing.

I showered, dressed and left the house. As I approached the bus stop, this very attractive redhead turned the corner. She was dressed in green - a green hoodie, green yoga pants and running shoes. But she looked familiar. I was convinced it was Attractive Neighbour, but as she got closer, doubt began to creep in. I didn't want to stare, so just continued walking.

She got into a car with a guy and they drove off. There are no open shops or restaurants near me, so I am convinced they were walking a local trail that's a few hundred metres away and were just returning to where they'd parked their car.

So, it's a couple of hours later, and I still can't say for certain that it was Attractive Neighbour. But if it wasn't, then AN has a doppelganger.

Sigh.

I'm in a real funk at the moment. I think a good portion of that is coming from the illness. I'm really low-energy. The illness has sapped me of energy for the past two weeks, I've been in a permanent state of either pain or discomfort and I think that has had an effect on my mental health as well. The illness, fatigue and the resulting loneliness are all coming to a head, I think.

I've already put out feelers to FBS, D etc. for a night out, which will probably happen in April. I'm still keen to get KfW2 out, too, but it's still proving difficult just getting her to talk, never mind arrange something.

Urgh... again.

Finally, what I would call a good night's sleep. I think I've shifted most of the illness, though a cough and a sore throat remain. And the cough gives me a headache and shooting pain across my left shoulder.

I also recall pieces of a dream from last night. I was dating actress Anne Hathaway. We were doing that thing where we were having an awful lot of sex in the early days of a relationship and hadn't announced anything publicly. After a rather extensive session (though this wasn't a sex dream per se), we left my house to go to the shop to pick up groceries and snacks.

On the way back, we bumped into Friction Guy and his girlfriend. FG's girlfriend and AH knew each other in the dream, so we chatted for a bit and went our separate ways. Soon after, paparazzi descended on my house. We managed to sneak out and head to my parents' house where my Mum was ill, so AH was looking after her in between us cuddling on the sofa and just chatting. It was around this time that I woke up.

Nothing really to say. As you might expect, it's brought back some loneliness (being ill and single/living alone is not great even if it's not a serious illness), and the lack of sex is an ongoing frustration. And I hate being ill.

But here's a picture of Anne Hathaway as Catwoman. Catsuit. Boots. Mmmm...

Urgh.

Plague Tales, Day 3. I managed a whole 5 hours of sleep last night. It might not seem like much, but I reckon that put my total sleep over the past three nights at around 10 hours. I've not had any caffeine since Saturday, so that's not to blame either. I am, however, getting better. At this rate, I might return to feeling human again by the weekend.