mmm... generic

After bragging in a recent post that I rarely get sick, I fell ill last week. "Fell" puts it mildly by my standards of illness. It was actually more like a dive, maybe even a plunge, into illness. I found myself working out and going about business as usual one day and a prisoner of my couch the next. Everyday I went to bed ill, I said to myself, "Well thank God that's over" because I have never been sick for more than two days much less the six days I was this time around. And if you read that recent post, you will not be surprised when I tell you that I did not have any of the necessary medications in the house when this illness struck. So I got my tired, be-fevered body off the couch, and I made a trip to Walgreens, where I became even more ill when I saw the price of the brands familiar to me. NyQuil, Advil, Tylenol... no thanks. Why would I buy Advil for $7.29, when I can buy "Wal-profen" for 2 for $4? It's a no-brainer.

However, I learned the difference lies not in subbing generic "Wal-profen" for Advil, but in subbing "Wal-quil" for NyQuil. NyQuil comes in cherry. You have options with NyQuil. "Wal-quil" however, comes only in green, which when I selected it, I was hopeful might signal mint or perhaps something in the apple family. I brought it home and waited eagerly for bed time to come so that I could take NyQuil, sorry "Wal-quil", which would knock me out allowing me presumably to wake up cured because, god knows, I had awaken in a pool of sweat enough times that I should be cured by morning. I digress... Guess what flavor green "Wal-quil" is? No, not mint. No, not apple. Black licorice. I cannot think of a more polarizing flavor than black licorice. You either love it or you hate it. There is no neutral in the realm of black licorice. I am in the 'hate it' camp, and downing my nightly dose of "Wal-quil" for the past week ranked up there on the miserable meter with the cold sweats and pounding headaches.

The only good thing that came out of this was having my parents take care of me for a few days. For the first several days I just stayed at my apartment, where my roommate and boyfriend kept me company. Because I was on winter break, I just couched it all week and assumed the illness would be gone by this Monday when school started. And on Sunday morning, I even woke up feeling okay (albeit clammy) so I thought I was safe to go hang out with my parents, stay there and go directly to work in the morning to begin the new semester. But by 6:00 that night, the fever came back to the tune of 103.4, which according to my dad, is .1 away from a trip to the hospital (which I interpreted as .2 away from brain damage).

Anyway, I am almost 100% now, and I am even going to attempt going to the gym tomorrow, which is probably where I caught this thing to begin with. Better wear my skull cap.