I Understand...

I understand people trying to power though sickness while on holiday, at least on a logical level.

Delaying travel plans while they recover means shelling out for hotel rooms, food, the cost of rescheduling flights and additional time off work. Powering through means a Russian roulette of a few hours in a confined space with recirculating air, then recovering in the comfort of your own home.

Meanwhile, the people around you have a day or two of incubation before they get laid low, to the tune of dozens of people who weren't expecting to get sick, and have just had their own life plans ruined.

My partner and I were on our way back from a long weekend in New Zealand, and at least one of the people near us was unmasked and coughing up a lung. My own mask supply was, unfortunately, in my checked baggage.

By the time we'd left the airport and were on the train home, I was suffering a mild but persistent cough.

Airplane food not sitting well with me wasn't unusual, and not necessarily a danger sign, when the soup I had for dinner stayed down fine.

The next day, I made it through two hours of work before the body aches, fever and chills hit full force and I headed home rather than infecting the entire office.

The first thing I did was book a Telehealth appointment for a medical certificate, a requirement if you're sick enough to need multiple days off. I knew that I wasn't going back to work the following day, but I also didn't need to be hauling myself into a busy GP office while contagious. So, Telehealth it was.

There were no appointments available until the following day, so I booked the first available opening and let my supervisor know that I wouldn't be in on Wednesday, either.

I spent Tuesday and Wednesday feeling like death warmed over, and had to ask my partner to come over and deal with the childproof seal on the cold medicine, because I had the grip strength of a newborn kitten.

She at least got the free entertainment of seeing my alternate efforts to break into the bottle, and my loud complaints about how anyone could call it 'berry flavoured' when it tasted like wet sawdust.

I've been living of toast with Vegemite (with beef stock being a base ingredient, it really is good for nutrients when you're sick) and lemon-ginger-honey infused hot water for three days.

Today, I got my brain working enough to order groceries for delivery and added bananas to the list. I already had plain rice and peanut butter, and if I feel up to it, I'll fire up the slow cooker for some pumpkin soup tomorrow.

I should be past the contagious point by Friday. Whether I'm well enough to go into the office is another question. As is how much time off I can afford, since I only had one day of Sick Leave available, and am currently on Day 4 off work...

That's the thing about being sick: it's not the same as simply having a day off work.

When you have a day off, you can do chores, work on hobbies, or just relax.

When you're sick, all your energy is spent on recovery. Counting the hours until you can have another dose of medicine, trying to sleep between coughing fits, calculating what you can eat without your stomach protesting, or without coughing so hard it triggers your gag reflex.

That perpetual exhaustion makes it hard to do anything that isn't resting, which adds a sense of frustration and uselessness to the recovery.

My Beloved finished the edits on my latest book on Monday. It took until Friday before I had the brainpower to even look at them. Even then, what would normally be the work of an hour or so, took me a full day.

My abdomen hurts. Not from illness, but because when you cough, your abdomen tenses up. Even confined to bed and the couch, one part of me is getting a full and entirely unwanted work-out.

I don't want to be sick, but I can't afford to take so much time off when I don't have the leave to cover it. I have two bookstalls coming up in less than a month, and two shows that I've been waiting almost a year for.

Each ticket is at least $100 dollars that I'll be unlikely to get refunded unless the show itself is cancelled. Between the cost of the bookstalls, accommodation and stock already ordered, the cost of cancelling those bookstalls due to illness is easily into the thousands of dollars.

There are countless things I should be doing right now, but can't, because I'm sick and the most I can do is angrily type words onto a screen.

So, to the people who decided that it was too much of a hassle to step into one of the dozen or so Pharmacies, WH Smiths, and other stores selling masks at the airport: I hope it was worth it.

I also hope I'm the only person you made sick, but I very much doubt it.