The Road to 40 Day 129/365: Down And Out

It took 129 days from my birthday, but I am finally too sick to do anything this day.

I take pride in not really getting sick, and I almost always show up for work. I’ve been blessed enough to not be admitted to a hospital for anything. I’ve had an outpatient episode for a slight fracture on my elbow, but that’s about it. Even then, I drove myself to the hospital.

I may not be the healthiest or fittest guy, but I always show up. But this day, I could not.

I woke up with a bad stomachache, and I thought it was just that. I cooked rice for Vino’s breakfast and lunch and tried to sleep off the pain. From the time I prepared Vino’s food until the time I took him to school, I went to the toilet five times already.

Che offered to take Vino to school, but I told her I can do it. I could, but I felt weak and my muscles were in pain the whole time. Vino even helped hold the umbrella for us as we walked up the stairs to his school.

When we parted ways, he said “be safe!”

I went home and tried to sleep, but I had to go to the toilet six more times. The pain was not going away, so Che offered to pick Vino up from school.

We decided to meet up at the hawker center near Vino’s school because we both haven’t had lunch yet. I had congee, she had fish noodles. She told me to go to the clinic nearby to get myself checked.

There were no patients in the clinic, so I didn’t wait long. If you’ve been to any neighborhood clinic here in SG, you’d know that they don’t do much, but they’d give you medication. Doc took my temperature, asked me to open my mouth for a bit, listened to my symptoms, and told me I may have a viral infection.

He gave me three types of medicine to take then we went off to pick Vino up from school.

It’s the first time that Che got to pick up Vino from school this term. So while I hated that she had to take time off work because I was sick, the bright side was that she got to eat lunch and she got to pick Vino up.

When we got home, I crashed on the bed hoping to recover more strength. Che and Vino went to goalkeeper training. While on their way back, she ordered some food for us.

Che was still working on something after dinner while Vino and I watched The Terminal. I put it on as a background movie while trying to write the blog. Neither of them has watched it, so it stayed on as our background movie.

After the movie, Vino and I went to the room to sleep while Che continued to work. I said I’d wash the dishes, but she said I should go with Vino to the room already.

I planned on getting up after Vino slept, but I woke up to Che already in the room with us.

I’ve taken pride in my durability, but it’s days like these that I get very much frustrated. In our relationship, taking care of Vino and the house is my responsibility. If I’m down, Che does double the work, which I don’t like because she gets even more tired than she has to be.

It’s frustrating that I can’t do my part, but it’s also probably the first time this year that I’ve had this much rest in a day.

Knowing Che though, she’d say she doesn’t mind doing what she did this day because we’re partners in all this. She knows I’ll do these things if I can, but seeing me in the state I was in, she took it upon herself to keep things going.

I can’t be thankful enough for having a partner like her in my journey through life.

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