Sick-ish

I've been sick-ish the past couple of days. Sick-ish in the sense that I haven't been running a fever, but I've had the congested head, cough, sore throat, and general aches/pains of being sick. I freely admit that I'm a wuss when it comes to being sick. I don't like anything that makes me feel bad. So, I complain and whine. I talk about my symptoms like I'm the only person on the planet to ever have a cold and that no one can ever feel my pain. Well, at least that's what I say in my head. Mostly I know that sort of behavior is really obnoxious, so I keep it on the inside. Still, I think it and thats almost as good as saying it out loud except that it annoys Dr. Man much less.

Knowing all this, I also have a hard time deciding to stay home. There's all this stuff to be done in the lab and it's actually kind of fun stuff. It's new and different. It may lead to at least preliminary evidence on my working hypothesis. Those sort of experiments are the ones that made me decide to become a scientist. That means that I want to go into the lab. And yet... I feel so horrible that all I want to do is crawl into bed, pull the covers up, and sleep. Then again, when I have little sleep I feel the same way. So, I now have the fever rule. If I'm sick enough to run a fever, then I'm sick enough to stay home. No fever, then I head into work (and take enough medicine to start a meth lab in my belly).

Hence, I've been in the lab this week. I've gone through the majority of a box of kleenex, an entire box of sudafed, and half a bottle of ibuprofen. However, I've troubleshot my protein purification, found a way to get more protein, contacted a collaborator, and made minor progress on Damned Yeast Project. Also, I've provided entertainment for the lab. They've set up a pool based on the number of times I wash my hands in one day. I think the loser has to load pipet tips.

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