what hell probably feels like

Three.

This is the number of sick/personal days that my boss Vince allows each employee to have for the entire year. Which means, you can get sick once every four months....thus they must be allotted very carefully.

So when I woke up this morning with a sore throat, headache, stuffed nose, and a body that ached everywhere with the exception of my teeth, I considered using one of these golden sick days.

But my sick day philosophy discourages me from using sick days when I'm sick. I'd much rather use them when I'm healthy because then I can actually enjoy them. If I'm going to stay home and be miserable, I figure that I may as well go into work.

Besides, I thought, surely after a hot shower I'll be feeling better.

But I didn't. After the shower, as I wiped a hole of condensation off the mirror, I looked into the reflection of my pale, red-rimmed eyes, and realized that I still felt lousy.

Maybe once I get on the road and get some coffee in me I'll feel better, I thought.

But I didn't. As I sat in traffic, unable to breathe through my nose and suffering from frequent coughing fits that drowned out my radio, I realized that I still felt absolutely terrible.

I got to work and, with the understanding that I wasn't going to be feeling better anytime soon, sat down and tried to work.

But worked proved to be hard...especially considering that my head felt like that bulb at the bottom of a thermometer on a frigid day when all the mercury settles into it. I may very well be near death, I thought. But having dragged myself this far, I refused to give in.

Work came in intermittent spurts. A little bit was done in between bouts of sneezing. A little more was done in between bouts of coughing. And a little bit more was done even though my cement laden head, burning eyes, and sandpaper coated throat were all threatening to turn against me. But I prevailed for what seemed like hours in this condition.

I glanced at the clock through teary eyes to see how much longer I had until lunch.

It was only 8:15.