Writers Don't Get Sick Days

Here’s the deal, I have a job, job one I actually like. It’s part-time and gives me a steady income to pay the bills. But my career is being a writer. I’m not a successful one, hence the day job, but I’m working on it. It’s a weird profession. I have no boss to report to, no set hours, no yearly reviews or metrics. Your only goals are the ones you give yourself. Grit is another important element. You need it to keep going through the hard slog of the endless middle of a book. Grit keeps you going, which brings me back to the title of the article. The problem is, we are human. We get sick. Most of the time, like our hourly or salaried counterparts, we plow thought. Colds, back pain, GI issues-I’ve worked through them all. There are, however, some illnesses that knock you flat and prevent you from doing anything. For me, that is a migraine. If you’ve had them, you know. If not, let me explain.

Headaches are annoying. I get those, a lot. You take your Excedrin Migraine, rest for 30-45 minutes while it knocks it out, and get on with your day. About 90% of the time, this works. Another 8% of the time, I have what I call wannabe migraines. These are the ones that can go either way and they feel different from the start. They take several hours to make up their minds. I have a procedure for those as well. Step one, take the meds, rest for about an hour, sit up and see how you do. Step two, if you do well, get some food. If you don’t, lay back down for another half hour and repeat. Food, though, is always the tipping point. Eating will either eliminate it for good or will cause the migraine to hit. Finally, there are the 2% that you know from the start are going to be terrible. You know you will need the serious prescription drugs and you pray for darkness and that someone doesn’t decide this is the moment to start vacuuming. This happened once. It’s never happened again. These headaches can last for days and make reading, writing and any and all screens your enemy. This was me last week.

I took some sick days. My body wouldn’t let me do otherwise. And I feel guilty. Funny, I never felt guilty when I had PTO and took it when this happened. If it couldn’t do the job, why show up? Working for you, it’s different. I tried to do my tradition plow through and get it done and was forced to surrender and quit. I got behind, and now I have to do the same thing I did working for someone else, play catch-up and scramble to make up the words and tasks I assigned to myself. It’s just as hard, but it feels fine.