I woke up this morning with a little bit of a sore throat and realised my chin strap had moved (as usual) overnight and my mouth had been open. This is why I bought Courtland these really cool ear plugs that conform to his ear. I don’t know that he has slept this well since we met.
Anyhow, the point I am making here is I recognized the sore throat. We’re well acquainted. This is the sore throat that I had pretty much every day of my life since…well, at least high school if not before. I used to wake up with the worst sore throats, and it would be so painful to swallow… I would ask my mom in my hardly there scratchy voice if she could call in sick for me, and then, by noon, I would feel better and go to school.
This continued through college and into my work life until a year ago when CG diagnosed me (just by looking) with sleep apnea. So, I just realised that I really did have a sore throat every time I woke up in the morning! I wasn’t a complete wuss trying to hide from the world. I really did feel like poop! I even thought there was something wrong with me, and it made me sad. I mean, who wants to wake up sick every morning? Or at least feel like they are sick? Not I.
I know it looked like I was faking it. I even thought maybe it was a psychological sore throat. How awesome to find out that I really do have the potential to be a healthy human being, and that I might have been one all along, save for the whole not breathing when I sleep thing.
I also know now that my lack of sleep contributed to all the various little bugs that would throw me into a world of hurt, stuffy noses, and coughs. No sleep equals lower immune system. I’m surprised I wasn’t more sick. But it does not surprise me now that every cold I got blew into something horrendous like bronchitis or pneumonia. I am also on my way to being convinced that all the physical ailments I have lived with could probably have resolved themselves sooner with a little sleep.
This is not to say that I am not unlike Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas, all stitched together, but that perhaps I would have healed a little faster with that thing people call oxygen.
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