Back in the saddle again

This is another reason why I don't miss work.
I was feeling a little peaked yesterday morning, but not bad enough to call off. But it just kept getting worse through the day. I figured I'd just tough it out, since I had already gotten stories started and nobody else can read my notes. By the time I got home I was miserable and already thinking about calling off today. But I stayed in bed until 10:10 and I feel fine now.
It's not really fair.
When I wrote yesterday’s post, I was still blaming the pain on Monday’s trip to the gym. But by evening I wasn’t so sure. I thought it might be the flu. I always think of Dr. James Eckenrode’s description of the flu:
“You feel good at 8 in the morning, and by noon you have pain and fever, then chills and a cough, and by evening you feel like you’ve been run over by a train.”
I hurt when I woke up and was already coughing the day before. By evening I was pretty miserable, but it was not like I’d been hit by a train.
Maybe a Vespa.
But it was an interesting day at work, even if I didn’t make much progress on The Tribune-Democrat’s American Heart Month project.
It started at the crack of noon with a program by state Kiwanis Executive Director Kevin Thomas followed immediately by the Johnstown-Cambria County Airport Authority meeting. Thomas spoke at the lunch meeting of East Hills Kiwanis Club of Johnstown and gave some scary statistics and research information about how children from low-income families are getting left behind in school because they don’t have enough early education opportunities. My lunch was gathered from Hoss’s Steak and Seafood soup and salad bar.
Airport leaders spent some time reviewing their efforts to get more travelers to use the local facility, but also showed some frustration over the number of canceled flights in the winter.
I wrote the Kiwanis story for today’s paper and will write an airport story yet today.
Windber Borough Council’s meeting did not attack any major issues, which is good because I was feeling pretty punk by then. I did file the story on a truck parking issue, but by then I was all in. I did manage to eat some of Becky’s homemade vegetable soup before finding myself unconscious on the couch and dragging myself to bed.
Today is a better day, as I said. I got started with an interview for an Indiana University of Pennsylvania heart surgery research project right here in Johnstown, and set up another interview for tomorrow. I may have one or two more doctors calling me, but I’m well on my way to wrap up Sunday’s package. This week’s stories will focus on surgical intervention to help heart patients.
Even in my recovery and even with the beautiful weather, I’m not really up to a walk in the country. Tomorrow morning, I’m interviewing a patient at Windber. I hope to get up early enough to put in some time at HealthStyles before the meeting.