A Portrait of Sleepless Dry Chicken
Sources say it's not productive.
Hi, it’s me.
I’ve been sick forever (again) and I’m pretty mad about it. I’m mostly over the symptoms at this point, but I’m still not sleeping well because the coughing wakes me up violently in the middle of the night. One minute I’m not even aware of how good I’ve got it, deep in my slumber, and the next I’m clawing at my CPAP mask at 2am because coughing while simultaneously having air blown down your throat feels a little like suffocating.
It’s a dry cough, which is the worst. There’s nothing good about it. Not even in the sure Arizona is hot but at least it’s a dry heat kind of way.
“Has the coughing been productive?” the urgent care doctor asked me on Saturday.
“No,” I said, realizing that even with life draining out of me, I’m expected to be productive. My poor cough just wants to lay in bed watching The Mentalist.
Even the chicken I made for dinner tonight turned out dry. When I don’t want to think about what to make for dinner, I throw a bag of frozen chicken into the toaster oven and hope for the best. It was not… productive… going down, but Bryan said it was the juiciest dry chicken he ever had.
(Thanks, babe. Add that to my list of reasons why I love you.)
“What should I write about in my newsletter this week?” I asked my family as they ate the buttered green beans with more enthusiasm than the chicken. At least the green beans were productive. “I might skip it this week since I’m not feeling great.”
“You should write about dry chicken as a metaphor for being sick,” said my son Thomas. “Like, ‘I’m trying to be wet chicken but my brain’s not there. I’m just dry chicken!’”
I LOL’d at wet chicken.
So here’s my blessing for today (after waking up coughing at 1am, 2am, 3:30am, and 6:30am): May your chicken be wet and your cough productive. Amen.
Until next time,
Jen
Happy 20th birthday, Thomas! Oh, to have a nonproductive cough! Glad you're feeling better, Jen. Loved your family's comments - and your story as told when you weren't feeling well! Get all the way better!
Feel better!