OK, this can stop now!

A week ago, I came down with what I assumed was just another routine cold, but it quickly morphed into something far worse. By Sunday night, I began losing my voice, and by Wednesday morning I was running a low grade fever and coughing very hard and frequently. I called my doctor and left work early to go home and go to bed. I've been home sick from work ever since and I went to the doctor Thursday afternoon. I seem to have a viral respiratory infection that is extremely stubborn. I've been sucking on throat lozenges to soothe my sore throat from coughing so much and taking combination cough medicine and expectorant to try to dislodge some of the congestion in my chest. I've had a vaporizer going non-stop as well. Probably my biggest fault is in not eating or drinking enough. I haven't had the energy to do any cooking and I have a bad habit of not drinking enough fluids as it is. My doctor was specific about pushing more fluids and staying hydrated throughout this thing and I need to listen to him and drink plenty of good clear fluids. Last night I had coughing fits through a good part of the night and every time I got up and drank a tumbler of water, the coughing stopped for about an hour before the next round began, so I'd drink more water and it would stop and so on. Eventually I must have drunk enough water to calm the cough entirely because I was finally able to grab a few hours of sleep. Naturally, the coughing started up again this morning upon waking up, but I plan to combat that with drinking plenty of fluids and hopefully, I will feel up to getting out to the store today to replenish some food stores. I've been doing absolutely nothing since coming home Wednesday afternoon but lazing around the apartment. It's badly in need of some serious cleaning but I don't want to overexert myself right now and make this thing worse, but I can't stand how dirty and cluttered it's become lately. I need to dust, scrub, mop, vacuum and thoroughly clean this place up so I can decorate it for Christmas. Maybe I'll try to do a little bit today, a little bit tomorrow, and a little bit each day until it's done. It's just a matter of where to begin. But it's got to be done and soon because I suspect part of what is making this chest congestion so bad is how dusty and dirty this place has become. That can't be helping. In the meantime, I am sitting here feeling guilty because I called off work today and you do not call off Saturdays unless you are dead or darn near it. Most of us drag ourselves into work as it is even when we're not feeling well because there is a sense of guilt about calling off work, meaning someone else has to pick up your workload in addition to their own, so most of us, if we call off, do so for maybe one day and come back to work before we're really all better. I don't think that this is in keeping with the best interest of our department at work, because when a sick employee returns to work too soon, they spread their germs and then more people end up out sick as a result. Better to stay home and completely mend than go to work before you're really well enough to do so. Sure, I feel bad that I had to go home early Wednesday, take off Thursday, I was already scheduled off Friday and today I was supposed to work but I called off, but it's really for the best because I don't want to expose my co-workers and the library patrons I would be serving today to my illness. I'm best just staying home, resting and doing my best to knock this thing out once and for all. I just wish it would hurry up and go away, because I'm tired of all the coughing and hacking I've been doing for the past week.