ox45

Going to the doctor:
My lower right eyelid seems to be on a mission to completely envelop my eyeball. I woke up on Sunday morning feeling like I'd been punched in the face. Ever since then, my eyelid has been red and inflamed and it seemed like it was getting worse. So I went to the doctor today.

I have to preface his diagnosis by saying that my philosophy on illness is this: 99.9% of anything you may become afflicted with--be it the flu, rash, infection, cut, whatever--is something that your body is quite capable of eradicating on it's own. I suppose everybody just wants to go to visit their favorite prescription-happy doctor, shell out some cash, get some antibiotics or Ritalin or Zanex and just let the pill take care of everything. When did society become so watered down? Is advertising to blame? Is it these people we see in commercials formerly suffering from herpes now climbing mountains while orchestral selections from The Who's Tommy play all their troubles away? If you can drive yourself to the doctor, you're fine. On that note...

I assume I just have an irritation on my eyelid that will take care of itself in a couple of days, but then I start to think about all of the "Early Detection" and "Preventative Medicine" campaigns I've beared witness to in the past and it makes me think. What if? What if this starts to spread to my eyeball and I could lose vision? What if they have to take my right eye out? Sure, I get the sexy/mysterious silk eyepatch, but I can't see for shit. What if, like a rotten ear piercing, the infection hits my bloodstream and gets into my brain, eventually killing me? What if, dammit!?

I call in sick to work (more on this below). I go to the doctor. What's the prognosis, doc? "Take a hot rag and hold it to your eye 2 to 3 times a day." Fuckin' hell. I should've just stayed at home.

Calling in sick to work:
Why did it take me hours of mental debate to work up the cajones to call in sick to work? I have a red, swollen piece of evidence on my face that I've brandished like a scarlet letter during the past few days of work. They know I'm not lying. My company issues us 2 weeks of paid sick time every year. This tells me that 2 weeks is an "acceptable", if not "expected", amount of time that an employee can be absent from work without incurring any penalties or administrative action, right?

I've missed one day of work since January 1st this year. I had food poisoning. I spent all night throwing up and aching and I still felt guilty to call in sick. Am I just a schmaltz? (that reminds me, I need to try to slip more Yiddish in my journal entries. Feh!) There's gals at work who call in multiple times a year because they're hungover. I'm still drunk in the morning 20% of the time, but I still make it, dammit! Hmm. Maybe I'm just a sucker. If we don't use our sick time we lose it every fiscal year, so why not call in a few times here and there. Eh, I'm just gripin'.

Does anyone else feel bad for calling in sick even though they may be at Death's door? Does going to the doctor ever pay off? Is Santa Claus real? Lemme know.