A Terrible Sickness

On the night of last Saturday, I felt some soreness in my throat. The soreness alarmed me that a disease could have been developing in my body. So I prayed that my sore throat would not snowball into a disease. And I made a mental note to thank God if I didn't fall sick in the next few days.

But alas! Come Sunday, I became weak and feverish in the afternoon. I had to force myself to bask in the sun for an hour, hoping the sun rays would work magic in my body and restore my energy. The sun rays however didn't help me since I got weaker on Sunday evening after coming from my jogging and walking exercises. To make matters worse, I vomited some of the food I had eaten at lunch time.

I retired to bed on Sunday night feeling as frail as a leaf in autumn's yellow bower. Though I was thinking clearly as I lay in bed waiting for sleep to come, I had a minor discomfort in my head that bordered on headache. But I didn't inform Mum about my sickness because she had enough on her plate with Dad in hospital.

When my phone alarm rang on Monday morning at 5:30 a.m., I was again feeling frail. I lacked the energy to jump out of bed with my usual enthusiasm. After dilly-dallying on whether to wake up or not, I thought it wise to rest my ailing body. And that marked the first time I have failed to get up at 5:30 a.m. in the last four months.

After overstaying in bed, I woke up at around 8:00 a.m. to have my breakfast. Unfortunately, I didn't have an appetite for tea and sweet potatoes, one of my favorite breakfast meals. I just took three or four bites of a sweet potato and then hopped back into bed for more rest.

There seems to be something amiss with me. Since December 2021, I have been catching an illness every few months. And it's an illness with the same symptoms: fever, headache, vomiting, coughing, loss of appetite, and general body weakness. I am wondering if the illness is the dreaded Covid-19 disease. Thankfully, my illness has never landed me in hospital. I have just been recovering after a few days.

Last Monday when I felt most sick due to my usual illness, I stayed in bed the whole day. Eventually, I disclosed to Mum that I was ill. When she offered me some Panadol tablets, I declined to swallow them since I don't like taking medicine. I wanted my body to fight off the sickness naturally. And with a proper diet, I believed it could.

Come 4:52 p.m. of that Monday, I was still feeling weak. But I defied the weakness and went jogging to my hometown of Kiserian as it is my habit.

Guess what! As I was jogging while lost in thought, I suddenly lost balance, tumbled on the ground and grazed my left knee. Some passersby were quick to say "sorry" to me. I acknowledged their sympathies as I stood up. Then I continued jogging.

After I stopped jogging and began walking the rest of the distance to Kiserian, I was crestfallen to see blood oozing out of my grazed knee. Damn! My body now had the double whammy of curing my sickness and healing my knee.

I don't know what caused me to suddenly lose balance and fall on the ground while jogging on Monday evening. But I tend to think it was as a result of the body weakness that had made me stay in bed the whole day.

Anyway, I began getting better on Tuesday. My appetite for food returned. I also didn't stay in bed the whole day though I dozed on my desk for a few hours.

By Wednesday afternoon, I was my usual happy self again. Upon getting my mojo back, I took a shower and did a general clean-up that included washing my bed sheets. You see, Dad once advised me that it's hygienic to wash bed sheets after recovering from an illness as that helps kill the germs that could have caused the illness.

The sickness I felt for three days was terrible, especially on Monday. Not only did it make me lose balance and fall on the ground, it also interrupted my daily habits. Now that I have recovered from the sickness as I pen this story on Friday morning, I can't thank God enough for my health. Truly, health is the greatest blessing.

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RECOMMENDATION: If you've enjoyed the above story about a terrible sickness I had earlier this week, you might also enjoy another one titled "What a Recent Illness Taught Me" which I wrote last year. Just click on that link in blue to dive straight into the story.