Sick spoons

(from Haunt Style)

Little Spoon and I have both been sick over this past week, likely as a result of all the various virii and bacteria going around during our recruitment party. We've both had to miss work on account of our illness, and only today do we feel like crawling out our our hidey-holes and rejoining the world of the living. I've got to get out today to test the waters and make sure I'll be OK to work tomorrow.

Our shared illness demonstrated the divergent ways we deal with being sick. Little Spoon wants to get closer, to be cuddled and caressed. It reassures her and gives her physical comfort when she's feeling icky. In contrast, I want to hide away and isolate myself. In part, I don't want other people to get what I have (and I thought we may have had different illnesses until yesterday), but physical contact also makes me feel worse when I'm ill. When I feel diseased, I don't want to contaminate other people; I also don't want others to contaminate me if I can see signs of sickness. Needless to say, I would not have done well working in a leper colony.

However, we had to compromise regarding our differences in dealing with being sick. Little Spoon agreed to our sleeping in separate rooms, a policy I'd always recommend when our sleep schedules were totally whacked out, each of us had hacking coughs at different times during the night, and runny noses precluded us from staying still. We also tried to stay in separate parts of the house while we were recovering at home. In turn, she came to me when she needed some physical closeness, asking just for a back massage or some snuggle time so that she could feel connected to me. Though I was sometimes reluctant to do this on account of not wanting to cross-contaminate her, once I realized we were dealing with the same sickness, I was much happier to be close with her.

Now that we're on the mend, I'm hoping that we can get ourselves synchronized again. I'm actually looking forward to resuming a regularized schedule at work to guide me, and I think it'll help me feel better psychologically.

Oh, and happy Valentine's day!