What a way to start the new year
Everything was going so well. I hadn’t been sick the entire year with anything, fortunately. I managed to get Christmas Day off from work and spent a wonderful day with my family. I had to work the rest of the week, but my husband didn’t and opted for a fun, last-minute trip to the West Virginia University bowl game in Charlotte with his brother and some friends.
They had a wonderful time, and WVU won, but when he returned two days later, I could tell his voice was raspy and he sounded very tired. I left for work and later that night, he told me he thought he was coming down with a cold. By the next morning, he was full-on into congestion, coughing and sneezing. He had gotten worse by that next evening and despite my best efforts at staying apart and sanitizing while trying to take care of him, I started to feel sick, too.
By Saturday night, I could barely get through the end of work, came home and plopped into bed. Sunday morning, I awoke with congestion, headache, fever and chills. Just wonderful! This was exactly how I wanted to spend my New Year’s Eve, right?
It seems like everyone is sick right now. Between the flu, COVID and colds, everyone at work and all of my friends have someone in the household who is sick. I was happy that I didn’t even use one sick day at work all year or come down with any ailment during 2023 – a pretty good year!
Well, that came to a crashing halt on New Year’s Eve. I even had a pretty, sparkly dress picked out to wear to do the weathercast that night. Well, there’s always next year.
There’s a funny line in the movie, “The Devil Wears Prada,” where one character says she’s just one good stomach flu away from her goal weight. I laugh thinking maybe I lost some weight because I haven’t eaten anything but chicken soup, a few crackers and hot tea for three days. That won’t last long, though. The only upshot of being sick is that when I feel better, I usually can’t wait to eat something delicious like pizza.
I always love New Year’s Eve, even if I’m spending it at home sipping champagne and watching everyone else on TV out partying hard. I actually prefer that these days. This year, I didn’t even make it to midnight to watch the ball drop. I fell asleep and my husband woke me up at midnight for a New Year’s kiss. Then I fell back asleep.
This one hit us pretty hard, but medicine and rest really helped, and both my husband and I are already feeling better after 48 hours.
Here’s hoping that this will be my only down time during 2024 and that we all enjoy good health and happiness all year long.
Happy New Year!
Kristin Emery can be reached at kristinemery1@yahoo.com.