I have been absent from my blog in part because I'm ill--very ill. I'm prone to respiratory and sinus illnesses. When they hit me, they hit hard. Any variant on the theme of my head and lungs filling up with congestion can leave me depleted, in despair and dumb. When my sinuses are overabundant I have a hard time thinking, especially thinking about what to do about my overabundant sinuses. I would call someone, usually someone I know, crying about my ailments and they would ask me if I've done such and such or thus and that. I hadn't; it didn't even occur to me. These were exactly the things I would be suggesting to patients, but I couldn't think of them for myself, not with the bloated blight of my throbbing head.

I recognized this problem several years back and I actually sat down when I recovered from an illness and wrote out my sick preparedness plan. I listed all of the things that I could do for myself when ill. I brainstormed. Even the things that I probably wouldn't do, I listed. I think I only went back to it once, when I was ill the next time. But writing it all out embodied it in me in a way that I now have a better handle on treating myself. And if I need to, I can always pull out that list.