3 things that feel fantastic when you're sick:

I have been "sick like dog" lately. Fever, runny nose....basically the tag line the Nyquil commercial. A few things have made me feel good during these cold/flu season:

1.) Burping. No joke. Burping (I am unable to do it voluntarily, so it comes as little surprise moments of reprieve) tickles a scratchy throat. I think it’s the air pressure, or the contraction of the larynx...who knows. Who cares? Burp a lot if you can.

2.) Neck-head rolls. I know I may look like I am some wanna-be-sexy-dancer that should be sitting open-legged on a backwards chair when I do this, but it somehow dislodges mucous from all sinus passage ways. Head hangs in front, then slowly (and with an open mouth) rolls to the right, back and then left and to the front. Doing it for about 2 minutes works well. Yep. I just let Mucous and sexy share a sentence. I'm crazy.

3.) Aquaphor. Maybe you know what this is, maybe you don't. It’s a liquid-based skin protect ant for burns, dry-skin, babies. Mostly used for infants. I put it on my daughter when the air is so cold her boogers freeze. So...I tried it all over my LIPS. Ahhhh...I looked like I had gone head first into a placenta sac, but it felt fantastic. There are few things worse than mouth-breathing your way to arid, cracked lips. Worse...I couldn’t laugh without bleeding. Now that should never be allowed. Laughing and bleeding. That’s like counter-intuitive torture.

The great grey skies of flu/cold fog parted this morning. I sound like a raspy cigarette-smoking Simpson's Aunt, but I can breathe again. I woke up, and both nostrils worked. My body wasn’t begging me to lie back down, and I actually felt inspired to do more than trudge through the day.

It makes me really grateful to be well. Perhaps getting sick is a small way of the world telling us to appreciate that we can breathe without discomfort, swallow without pain, and have enough energy to motor around all day? I also noticed the obscene over use of the word: "exhausted".
Exhausted is 2 days home with a 2 year old and 100+ fever.

Go be well. Be grateful if you are, and get better if you are not.