I admit it. I’ve been stressed lately. We have the traveling exhibition, our new year long exhibition at the museum that opens next week. Then there are the public programs that I’m working on and the classes that I am teaching. There’s a lot going on. If I had the money, I’d just skip away this weekend to Montreal, but that will have to wait until March, I think. I’ve been going to bed early lately, mainly because I am tired or have a headache. This afternoon, I have an appointment with a physical therapist to work on my neck and shoulder pain. It’s also supposed to help with my headaches, I sure hope it works.

S

I’ll get to sleep in a little bit today. Not much, but I can sleep until 8 or 8:30. That’s an hour later than usual. Yesterday I was up at 5 am. Yuck! Anyway, my coworker and I have some errands to run in the morning. The set-up for the exhibit will be this afternoon. The truck with the exhibit will arrive around 2:30 and the set-up will begin around 3. I have no idea how long it will take to set up the exhibit. I’m guessing a few hours to get everything uncrated and set up. Tomorrow before the big gala, we will install the artifacts that we brought down. That should be a relatively easy process. I have no idea what we will do during the day tomorrow before the gala.

I’ve been out of work for nearly a month if you count the vacation time the school give us over the holiday. First I was out sick with an upper respiratory infection, which progressed to atypical (walking) pneumonia. I went back to work feeling some better, but only stayed half a day each on the two days before I flew home. I got the all clear to go home, hoping I’d continue to feel better. I only felt worse. So I called my doctor and saw him on Friday. He now says I have bronchitis and gave me steroids to reduce the selling, he said that with the steroid, I should see significant improvements by the end of the day Monday. If I did not see significant improvement then I’d have to go to the hospital for further tests and another chest x-ray. Since I do feel better, I’m not sure about significantly, I will be going to work today.

I went back to work yesterday, but only stayed half a day. I sweated the whole time I was there. It was so hot in the office, I almost wish I could have worked outside where it was 15 degrees. At least I could have bundled up for that, but I’d purposely worn something cool so that I wouldn’t be hot. I was still sweating. I guess it comes with being sick. I’ve sweated a lot with this virus, but it had been better for the last day or so. Not so yesterday. I will go into work again today, but I don’t know how long I’ll make it. I’m just ready to get on that plane and fly home tomorrow morning.

I’ve been out of work sick for over a week. It’s time to go back. I’m already out on Thursday and Friday because I’m heading home. So I will only be at work Tuesday and Wednesday before I am out for two and a half weeks. I am feeling much better, thankfully. I am still coughing some, but that’s kind of to be expected. I knew I wouldn’t be miraculously well over the weekend, but I do feel remarkably better. I wish I didn’t have to go back to work, but I don’t really have much of a choice. I’ve got several meeting to attend and dozens of emails to answer. It’s going to be a busy two days.

As I wrote this post last night, there was a 50/50 chance that I was going to work today. I’d been leaning toward not going, but I’ve been out of work for a week and I feel guilty about being gone so long. I do feel better but I’m short of breath, I barely have a voice, and when I do cough I can barely stop. I’m pretty sure it will be one more day at home.