On The Dread of Getting Sick

I’m in NYC for a day for some meetings today, capping off two weeks of travel that took me to Europe, a brief stop home, SF, and now here. Sleep hasn’t been great but overall the trip has had me in pretty good condition up until today when I started to feel the early signs of a respiratory something kicking up, turning into congestion and a solid cough by the time dinner rolled around.

I’ve got myself in bed, started on the zinc cough drops, am drinking plenty of water now, but I’m still 99% sure that I’m waking up tomorrow with a full on cold or similar.

Obviously being sick sucks, but I’ll be damned if the knowing you’re getting sick thing isn’t actually worse. It’s one part frustrating, one part rage inducing, one part disempowering, and one part bargaining - come on universe, surely you can cut me a break this time right? If I get a good nights sleep, my body can fight it off, right?

Who knows if any of the routines (like the cough drops) actually make any difference - maybe its just a way to trick ourselves into thinking we’re doing something and shame ourselves if we don’t take every step we can to prevent it. It ends up occupying all this headspace, which ironically probably brings stress that makes the body worse at trying to fight it off.

Ultimately, it’s probably not a huge deal either way (especially in comparison to chronic disease and the challenges there), all I know is I’d really appreciate it if this could go away overnight.