Sick Day

I called in sick Friday. It wasn't a lie, but it was also something I rarely do.

I didn't call in sick a single day when I had Covid.

Of course, for most of that time I did not think I had it, but I did not feel great.

This time a cold came around. I was still very functional, occasionally having to use the mute button to hide coughs, and going through a lot of cough drops.

Then Friday, I just couldn't. 

I know part of it was not believing my voice would last throughout the day. I still thought I could get a couple of hours in, but there was just this "No!" rearing up inside of me.

I was almost dressed for work, but I called the attendance line, got back into my nightgown and back into my bed, and stayed there for three hours. 

Having done so, I felt significantly better.

I have been going so hard (and hating it) for so long, I might just have given out anyway. However, I might have been influenced by Twitter.

Recently, Bernie Sanders tweeted about having Covid and isolating but still working through it. 

One person who is not particularly prominent tweeted a fairly scathing rebuke: this attitude about something that is "debilitating and deadly" is harmful. 

It probably would not have made much of a stir, except that podcaster Jon Favreau -- not to be confused with actor and filmmaker Jon Favreau (and even if we need multiple Jon Favreau's, do we really need more podcasters?) -- quote tweeted it deprecatingly, touching a nerve in the disabled community that he did not know existed.

He got several replies, many of them very helpful, about why the attitude is harmful, the problems with not resting and not taking disease seriously, and the specific affect on disabled people.

Favreau mainly responded by blocking them.

https://disabilityvisibilityproject.com/2024/01/02/disabled-outrage-and-podsavejon/

Please note that the sort of quote tweeting Favreau, with his 1.3 million followers, did to someone with fewer than ten thousand followers is a great way to draw abuse upon them. He certainly did not increase understanding. 

Well, the responses he drew may have ended up increasing understanding for some people, but he did a lot of doubling down before he started blocking. 

I think I am going to write more about disability next week. 

For now, it is possible that I would not have been able to log in Friday anyway. My voice was rough, there had been lots of weekend shifts in addition to the regular work week, and it has been very frustrating. 

I keep meaning to take better care of myself, and calling in that day may have been affirmative self-care.

It is also possible that seeing it mattering to other people made it possible to take that affirmative self-care for me. 

I am not always great at prioritizing my needs, and capitalism gives you a lot of reason not to.

So thank you Thomas, Alice, Aparna, Angela, and the others. 

Jon and Bernie, do better.