I started having a fever yesterday late noon. Like free MacDonald vouchers that sometimes come with weekend papers, I got a splitting headache and a mildly painful neck as the whole package.
Well, splitting headache is actually not the right word. Jelly brain will be more appropriate. Every little movement of my head sends the jelly inside it wobbling, causing discomfort. The back of my head is likened to the beaches of Hawaii. Whenever I stand up, waves after waves of pain rushes up. If I never had a brainstorm before, this definitely qualifies as one.
As for my neck, though I do not feel any swelling, I cannot turn in a big angle without any aches. So the whole day today, I have been turning my head like a neckless Robocop - with the rest of my upper body following.
When I woke up today, things did not improve. Neither did it get worse (as far as I can tell). As such, I did not think much about going to the clinic (actually I did go into one, but to seek information for other stuff) but was mostly resting at home and gulping down an Indian Ocean worth of water.
I did not even bother to relief my pain with panadol, mainly because I am not a fan of the pain reliever. By early evening, I couldn't take the headache anymore and finally succumb to rummaging the medical drawer for panadol. Pain had prevailed. However, as fate would have it, while I did find the box of panadol, it was empty inside.
With a craving for relief from my illness, and the enticing prospect of getting MC (since I am working next few days), I went to the doctor's after dinner.
Till now, I do not know if that was a mistake. The doctor I got was mildly humorous and sadistic.
When I mentioned that I felt as if my temperature has gone down and after she took my temperature, she said 'Don't underestimate yourself. You are still hot.'
The moment I heard that, my ego started to inflate and was almost bursting at the seams until I realised she meant I am still running a temperature.
However, she did say something I wanted to hear, 'No exercise. I don't want your temperature to increase. If I had the say, I'll put you in a chiller room instead.'
Wow. Maybe I had neglected to tell her I usually cool with anything and the most vigorous exercise I had been doing for the past few weeks was probably clicking the mouse.
'Now dig your ears and listen very carefully what I'm going to give you. Take 2 pills of X. After two hours, if fever still yet to subside, take 2 pills of Y. Don't worry about the night dose. Unless you wake up to pee, then you take. Otherwise, just sleep right through and continue the next day.
'Right, now I'm thinking if I should give you a third medicine. Hmmm...nahhh. Better let you twist and writhe in pain through the night than give something to make you feel better. Wahhahha...!'
All right, so she did not really say those verbatim, but the gist is there.
At long last came the finale. 'Are you working tomorrow? I don't want you to go to work tomorrow. Nor Sunday. I'm going to give you two days MC. If you still don't feel well on Sunday, I don't want you to work on Monday as well. Come back to the clinic.'
Yippee! Two days of MC. My first MC in light years. I would have called all my friends and organised a party to celebrate this special occasion if I wasn't sick. While I'm an advocate that the 14 days medical leave company benefit is in reality an extra two weeks worth for play, I had not utilise any of it until now.
It is a perfectionist thing. I just like my records to be free of medical leave if possible. Now that this doctor has broken the duck, I need to find ways to utilise the remaining 12 days of (medical) leave in one and a half month. Since it is no longer perfect, no point not using the 12days, if not will lugi right?