She has been down with fever since last week. Because of this bout of illness, it caused her to miss out on many activities. She will be skipping tomorrow's pre-CNY dinner with the usual peeps as well -.-
Despite being ill, she went to work last Friday because if she didn't attend that course, she would be made to pay >SGD500 which she obviously was not willing to. One whole day in the conference room obviously did not do her any good. Her nose was leaking non-stop and that was no way an exaggeration. She brought 4 packets of tissue and she used up 3 packets in the first 2 hours of the day. Well done. In the end, her group mates had to give her all their tissue packets and help her nick serviettes from the caterer to stem the broken facet. The serviettes gave her a free exfoliation which left her nose feeling raw and red.
The course would have otherwise been pretty enjoyable and the learning curve would definitely be much higher if she was in the pink of health rather than her nose.
To make matters worse, she had to attend a musical that same night, which tickets she bought last year. As the ticket cost more than a hundred dollars, her conscience would weigh on her if she wasted a good hundred dollars just like that. Hence, she dragged herself and silently willed herself to last though the night in the freezing theatre. Instead of fully enjoying the expensive show, she was pretty dazed and wondered how long she had to sit through this discomfort.
Relief rushed through her when the curtains fell for the final time as she staggered out of the theatre and bade her mates farewell. She was close to collapsing by then as her legs were weak and she felt faint. She felt so helpless that she wanted to sit in the toilet and cry. A call of help to her parents to rescue her from the rising seas of people was answered. Thank God she didn't have to join the snaking queue for cabs. There was no way she could sit through the hour long bus ride. She wanted to snuggle in her bed and sleep without a care in the world. As she sat there waiting for the car to arrive, she started texting the people she planned to meet over the weekend apologising that she was in no state to meet them.
At the sight of the familiar number plate, relief surged through her. She sunk in to the cushy car-seats and closed her eyes as tears of fatigue, relief and a tinge of sadness rolled down her cheeks.
----
The next day, the thermometer and doctor verified that she was running a fever. The pills put her to sleep over the weekend. What was supposed to be a purposeful and event-packed weekend turned out to be a sedentary one where moments of consciousness were clouded with the inability to operate at a normal speed.
Despite advice to stay home and rest, her sense of responsibility dragged her to work on the day that has the amazing effect of turning all salaried workers' moods blue. It proved to be a wrong decision as she felt worse when she went home than when she left the house in the morning.
The next visit to the clinic had the doctor declare her home-bound for the next 3 days to get ample rest. Even the normally stoic nurse could not help but remark at how sick she was.
----
Second day of her Medical Leave and she was trying to work from home when she suddenly realised from the thread of emails that people do not recognise her efforts. Her Medical Certificate was seen as a ticket to escape from work. A chance to shirk responsibility.
Heck it, she thought. So she switched the computer off and really rested, as what her doctor advised. She decided that she will not turn on her laptop on her last day of Medical Leave.
It does not pay to work so hard. People do not appreciate it.
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