Sick Days

Can I still take sick days when my only boss is me and, apart from seemingly endless rehab exercising, I no longer punch a time clock?

Yesterday, I took a 'sick day' despite not feeling particularly ill or being in exceptional pain. It was a mental health day. Mental health days are good and necessary. This is true, despite the fact that I’m doing little (compared to a healthy person’s daily activity) and it feels, on most days, that my progress is infinitesimal.

What’d I do with my day? I got up (eventually), had a shower (which should still count as exercise, dammit!), got dressed, went next door for a bit to visit/annoy Jen and Oni. Mostly, I laid in bed reading, petting my boy Cake and bothering Ten with my warped sense of humor. It was awesome.

Why do I find myself in a fog of guilt about this though?

• I normally do my rehab exercising five to six days out of seven. In taking yesterday off, I only worked out four of the past seven days. How can I realistically expect to, eventually, walk sans rollator if I slack like this?!

• I was raised Catholic. Though I dumped the church billions of years ago (when I was a teen—back when disco was hot and pterodactyls still graced the sky), the guilt reflex remains strong.

I need to chill the fuck out. One extra day off every now and then is NOT going to kill my momentum (such as it is) or cancel out the modest gains I’ve made. Really (she says in an attempt to talk herself into rationality).

Balance and some dark chocolate—that's what I need.