What Your Body Is Trying To Tell You

Being sick sucks. No one likes being sick. Feeling exhausted, feverish, and lethargic are some of my least favorite feelings in the world. Not only does my body physically hurt, but mentally I become so frustrated. I don't drink a lot of alcohol. I eat relatively healthy. I drink at least 64 ounces of water a day, and somehow I still end up getting sick.

I've been battling a swollen lymph node for over a week (almost two weeks now), and it hurts. It's uncomfortable.
Naturally I went to the doctor (about 5 days after I noticed the swelling), who prescribed me a medication, and off I went. I went back to work the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that. Tuesday rolled around and I couldn't get out of bed. Head pounding, raging fever, sore throat...I was not okay. I called the doctor who told me she wanted to check my white blood cell count which meant I had to go back to the doctor and have my blood drawn the next day. Growing up, I always battled a fainting problem due to my fear of needles/blood/anything medical. Mind racing, I made sure Cody could come with me the next day for my appointment. We arrived at the lab and the lab technician had to leave the room and "give me some time" TWICE until I finally calmed down from my hysterics and sucked it up and got my dang blood drawn. FOUR VIALS and a Moana song later, I did it! I didn't faint! Big deal in the world of Jill.

My doctor asked me if I had been stressed as my white blood cells were slightly elevated but not severely enough to concern her of a further infection, and I said, "Well I've only had two days off of work in the past two weeks."

And so it hit me. I work hard. Like really hard. I commit so much of my time to my jobs, that I tend to ignore my health. Because of that, I had a rough couple of days and ended up missing two days of work. My body had been telling me, "Rest, slow down, take some time off." I clearly wasn't listening and ignored that little voice in the back of my head. What I'm trying to get at here is sometimes no matter how much you want to avoid being sick and miss work, sometimes you have to listen to your body and surrender to the illness, whatever it is. Accept it, acknowledge it, and give your body what it needs to fight the illness away. I was so frustrated and so caught up in why I was sick, why I felt like I was doing all the right things but I was still bedridden all these things I didn't have control over anymore. I needed to chill. Literally be home, relax, listen to positive podcasts and eat a lot of fruits and veggies. So I did. Cody was by my side the entire time making veggie soup, holding my hand, taking me to the aquarium, buying Kombucha, and hanging out in the sunflower fields.

It's OKAY to be lazy when you're sick. Our world is so fast nowadays, hardly anyone has time to chill out. I have decided it's time to do more things for me. Work is important, but my health comes first!

The sunflowers that are being grown as a biofuel crop by pacific biodiesel have attracted a lot of attention here on Maui, and are bringing many people joy and healing!