Getting Going in the Mornings by Sharon O’Donnell

Is it a cold or allergy??  That is the question I’ve asked myself when I woke up every morning this past week feeling terrible.  My nose is stuffy, my eyes itch, my throat is scratchy, and my ears are always stopped up.  When I wake up, it takes a lot to get me out of bed and going:  eye drops, a heating pad, Excedrin, cough drops, and cold/allergy meds.  I need about 45 minutes of transition time before I can drag myself to the bathroom and put on my make-up to get out the door and on the way to my job at a Teacher’s Assistant at an elementary school.  Once I’m up and going, I feel much better — until later that night when the symptoms start again, regardless of what kind of meds I take. Then it’s to bed and another day.  Another morning. When I felt the sore throat symptoms beginning last week, I took several Zinc lozenges to ward off what might be coming — and I felt much better for several days and thought I’d nipped it in the bud — until the symptoms started again in full force. 

Colds didn’t hit me this hard when I was younger. But I’m 51 now, and  a cold proves to be a formidable obstacle, sucking the energy right out of me. Thank God for Saturdays because I don’t think I could have made it to another day of school today trying to teach fractions to 4th graders via the Common Core way (drawing number lines and using repeated addition instead of just multiplying the fractions — incredibly frustrating). I only have so much energy to give, and the cold is zapping me of most of my day’s allowance before the school day even begins. Not to mention coming home to deal with 7th grade math with my youngest son. Lately, I’ve been feeling like a cast member of The Walking Dead.

There is no better feeling than waking up during the night and thinking that is probably almost 6:15 and time to get up but then to see the clock says it is only 3:30, so I can roll back over and go back to sleep. Ahhh.  Colds are only supposed to last 7 days or so, and thus, I should feel back to normal soon.  And I don’t know who came up with the concept of weekends — but I thank them sincerely from the bottom of my heart. Even though 3 days would be much better.

Tags: colds, morning routine, weekends