April 14, 2014 - Written by: Cas Sutherland

When You Have Your Health…

Last week, I was struck down with a very horrible, unrelenting bout of flu. I was bed-bound for the first three days, sleeping for upwards of 18 hours of the day, only waking up when the painkillers ceased working. I drank pints upon pints of squash, all the variations of tea and honey I could muster from our extensive tea cupboard, and had a concoction of fresh lemons and ginger on the boil almost constantly. I couldn’t believe how much my body ached, and I was astounded at how painful a throat can actually be!

I hadn’t felt this rubbish since I had tonsillitis towards the end of 2012, when I discovered that doctors won’t give you meds for tonsillitis unless you go back to them after five days, begging, to prove that your immune system hasn’t just automatically beaten the bugger of an infection. This time though, I knew it was ‘only’ flu. I didn’t haul my tired arse out of the house in an attempt to get any kind of medical attention – only partly because the registration period at the local doctor’s surgery meant I wouldn’t get seen until May. But this meant that, after three days off work and a weekend spent dosed up on Ibuprofen and Lemsip, come Monday, I really had to go back to work. I had virtually no voice and still felt like hell, but rules is rules. The boss needed me back.

(Image via)

There’s nothing like feeling like hell to make you appreciate life. Getting dressed and venturing outdoors for the first time in four days was a pretty novel moment, although the walk to Tesco isn’t a glorious one and I bought mainly salad leaves and Lucozade (which does wonders when you’re ill).

My walk home from the bus stop after finishing my first afternoon of work on Monday was utterly glorious! The sun was shining, the park was full of people having fun and I couldn’t believe how green the grass looked! Don’t get me wrong – my head was ablaze with the fiery pain of a screen-induced headache just behind the eyes and I was planning on getting into my bed just as soon as I could, but I smiled nonetheless. Augusten Burroughs kind of says it all, really:

‘When you have your health, you have everything. When you do not have your health, nothing else matters at all’.

When you’re in good health, the world is your clam and you’re capable of just about anything. But it’s only when you’re not at the top of your game that you realise just how good it feels to feel good. I have been blessed with a pretty good track record, I try to look after myself and I’m probably just a little bit lucky not to have gotten ill more often, as I tend to burn the candle at both ends most of the time. But I know several people who are not so lucky, are coping with long-term illnesses of various kinds, and are doing a commendable job of it.

There are few people I admire more than those who battle against an ailment that has the potential to stop them in their tracks, yet who come out of it with their head held high, ready to take on the world, share their experiences and raise awareness about whatever it is they’re living with.

While I can natter on about how a fortnight’s worth of bad flu has given me a renewed sense of the beauty of the outside world, I am utterly astounded by some of the feats of human determination that surround me daily.

If you enjoyed this article, why not check out ‘I Will Survive (In India)’?