The grateful ill – 10 reasons I’m thankful!

I feel like we’ve been harbouring bugs in our household for weeks. Before the boys broke up, they were taking it in turns to be sent home from school with sickness and temperatures. I thought I’d had my turn a couple of weeks ago when I was wiped out for about 36 hours with a faulty internal thermostat and a complete energy bypass.

But on Christmas Day I woke up with a sore throat and gradually went downhill from there. Today I feel so rotten I’ve hardly left my bed. I’m afraid to cough too hard in case I disturb the broken glass in my throat. Even swallowing brings tears to my eyes.

But I can’t help but think how lucky I am and here are a few reasons why:-

1. We have a great thermostatically controlled central heating system, so when I can’t regulate my own body, I can at least control the temperature of our house.
2. This is not one of those ‘self-inflicted’ ailments so I can feel rotten without feeling guilty
3. Being the 21st century, I have access to various remedies and painkillers which I can call upon to take the edge off my symptoms
4. My lovely husband who has been busy at work all day, has also found time to go shopping for lovely gifts for me such as velvety soft tissues.
   Scrap that. He forgot the tissues but he has bought me Night Nurse. Hoorah!
5. The boys have not been dragged on any outings and have therefore had a great opportunity to play with their Christmas presents
6. When we had our neighbours over for pre-arranged Christmas drinks, they shrugged off our concerns about infecting them as they were also suffering/recovering from various ailments of their own. (Has anyone anywhere had a bug free December?)
7. Unlike much of the world’s population we have freely running clean tap water, which is very lucky as I am sure I’ve drunk at least my own bodyweight in hot blackcurrant today
8. As we live in one of the most affluent areas of the modern world, I can eat what I fancy, get warm when I need to and drink plenty of fluids
9. It’s the Christmas holidays, so (unlike the last time) I haven’t had to struggle out of my PJs to do the school run
10. Being the 21st century and thanks to some of the above, I can be reasonably certain that I am not in mortal danger. This is a temporary blip and I hope to be fully recovered in a day or so

There you go. Ten reasons why I am thankful about being ill this Christmas. And if, by any chance, I pass this onto you, I expect you will really thank me for it too!