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Notes -
Do you know men who get "man flu"? Are you a guy who gets "man flu"? If you don't know what man flu is, my understanding is that it's the idea that men are lazier than women when they're sick. I heard this and wrote it off, like most gender war stuff. Men don't help around the house enough, women earn less than men for doing the same work. But I keep seeing guys defending the idea that viruses make them sicker than women.
This is completely anathema to me. My father would go years without taking a sick day. He would get sick every few years during his busiest work event of the year, when he'd be pulling 12-hour-plus days. Growing up, I don't recall ever hearing about anything being put off in our social circle because a man was sick. My mom, on the other hand, was down all the time with one thing or another.
My father-in-law is the same. In 2021, he clearly had COVID. His wife was in the bedroom for days; he was out shoveling snow, cooking, and then making everyone play cards with him.
The only time I take "medicine" is when I'm at work events pretending I'm not sick. Afrin and a constant supply of cough suppressants..
Usually if I get sick, I'm out for the duration of the active phase for pretty much everything. The only exception is walking the dog, if necessary - dog's needs trump all. When I had covid, I was so fatigued I barely could make myself get up to go to the bathroom, but I still once a say dragged myself out of bed and dressed up and zombie-shuffled along the dog route because you've got to do what you've got to do. Usually it's no more than 2-3 days of this but when at it, I'm pretty much 100% useless. That also may be because my work involves using my brain, and when sick the brain is useless. But usually also the flu for me results in fatigue which makes me even more useless. That said, once the active phase has passed I am pretty much back to the normal schedule, even if I have cough and sneezing and other stuff (of course, trying to limit contact with other people while expectorations are continuing).
As for medicine, I usually do tried and true home remedies - a lot of hot tea with lemon, ginger & honey, plus vitamin C (it may be overdoing it as lemon already has a lot of it, but I never heard of anyone overdosing on vitamin C) - this year also adding zinc and quercetine, let's see if there's a difference. If I get lingering coughs - which I am prone to, unfortunately - menthol lozenges. Ah, and the chicken soup of course - while called "Jewish penicillin", unlike penicillin, it works for viral infections too.
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