Alternative Medicine
I've been sick for a few days, including running a fever yesterday. A fever in the summer! I don't think that's happened since I was a teenager. It was an odd mixture of symptoms. I had the fatigue of the flu or allergies, but without the congestion and muscle cramps in my arms and legs rather than that all over body-ache. I searched my memory of ever having anything similar in the past and remembered that about 5 years ago the same thing happened. At that time, I went to the doctor who was mystified and gave me muscle relaxers for the obvious charley-horses in my calves and biceps, told me to take aspirin for the fever and to come back if things didn't improve. Things didn't improve, but I didn't go back because I decided that it was nothing more than stress and a crappy diet and sure enough, a few changes fixed things. Or maybe the mystery bug ran it's course. Either way, I didn't bother going to the doctor this time. Instead, I went shopping. For those of you who actually like to shop, this probably sounds like great fun, but I HATE to shop. It doesn't matter if it's groceries or clothing, cars or tools, or even something I really enjoy like a new bad-ass computer - I hate shopping. But I decided that if this illness was due to stress, then the best thing I could do was to go buy a few things that could make my life a bit less frustrating. Things such as pants that fit instead of ones that try to fall down around my ankles, a daily source of annoyance. A trash can for the kitchen so I didn't have to take every little bit of trash outside to the outdoor trashcan. Some shelves to put stuff on so I could find things and the counters wouldn't be stacked high with assorted junk. A paper towel holder, a summer-weight robe, one of those new toilet bowl brushes with the scrubby part that you just toss when you are done. All manner of little odds and ends that I won't detail here, but reflect a quick dash through the Dickies store (for the clothes) and Target (for the other goodies.) And truth be told, I feel a lot better now. Not because I have new stuff, but because the weight of all those things I've needed to buy for the last few weeks, months or years (I've never had a summer-weight robe) has been lifted just a little bit and life is just a tad bit easier now that I'm not constantly pulling up my pants while I take a cheese slice wrapper outside to the trashcan :)