Sick.

So I should be going to sleep. (But Lis is still doing stuff in the bedroom.)

Anyway, for the past couple days, I've been down with a variation of the Creeping Crud which is going around. Main symptom, hacking cough. Secondary but more debilitating symptom, exhaustion -- been sleeping fourteen hours a day or so -- ten hours, get up for a couple hours, crash for a couple hours, get up for a couple hours, like that.

And muscle aches.

As creeping cruds go, this one isn't all that bad -- no nausea, no gut problems, no fever. (Some sudden cold sweats and stuff, and feeling either colder or hotter than the ambient temperature would suggest, but nothing bad -- my temperature has been between 98.4 and 98.6 Fahrenheit degrees consistently, which is about my normal temperature range.)

But here's the thing -- in those couple hours I'm up, okay, I'm mainly sitting here reading LJ or playing card games against the computer, but I'm also showering, getting dressed, taking my meds, and usually managing an hour or so of housework. Less than has to be done, but more than I have done before.

From this, we can determine that Creeping Crud < Depression.

I just like making these comparisons, in case someone's reading this who's encountered depression, and not understood what it was, and has, as is very natural, gotten frustrated with the depressed person for not DOING anything. I mean, you see a person who COULD be making their life work, and just not DOING anything about it. Why WOULDN'T you be frustrated?

So, just to note: a Creeping Crud that sidelines you for a couple days is a significantly less debilitating condition than major depression. It is much, much easier to do things with this Crud than it is with depression.

And the depression is pervasive enough that you can't see it when you're in it.

So, if you see someone who is depressed, just remember: that person about as sick as you would be with a medium case of the flu, and has been that sick for longer, and has been that sick for so long that they don't know what "healthy" would feel like.

Now, for those of you reading this who are currently dying of extremely painful diseases, or are sidelined by other pervasive medical conditions which are equally or more debilitating, okay, I'm cool if YOU guys have no sympathy for depressives.

But if you're healthy? Remember what it's like to be sick, and imagine that that was your entire life, day in, day out.

It does kind of suck that a good 20% of my friends list doesn't have to imagine this. . . .

The 23 Psa*coughhackwheezehackhack*lm

A psalm of the sickbed. The Nyquil is my shephard, I shall not cough.
It maketh me to line down in warm blankets, it leadeth me to the still waters of the toilet if I have to puke.
It restoreth my soul; it guideth me along straightish paths to the kitchen with only some wobbling and smashing into walls.
Yea, though I walk through the shadow of the valley of the Creeping Crud which is hitting, like, half the people on my friends list, I will fear no virus, for thou are with me; thy Tylenol and thy Benadryl, they comfort me.
Thou preparest a bed-tray before me in the presence of the virus (although I can't eat much on it); my Cup-O-Soup runneth over (I'll clean that up later.)
Surely goodness and health shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall get out of this frickin' house some time before Sunday when I have to teach Hebrew school.

(Actually, so far, I've not had nausea. Knock on wood.)