You know when you're just emerging from the flu and everything hurts a little less but you still feel like a slightly wrung-out version of yourself? That is the phase I am here to discuss.
The acute phase is over. The fever broke. You can now remember your middle name again. But you are not ready for regular life. Your body is asking — no, telling — you to slow down. And in this house, for the first time in as long as I can remember, I am listening.
Post-flu recovery protocol in my house: soup is non-negotiable. Not from a can. Real soup. The kind that takes an hour and fills the kitchen with a smell that says everything is going to be okay. I made chicken soup that week and my daughter came out of her room — voluntarily, without being called — because she could smell it from down the hall. That soup has healing powers that science has not fully credited.
Netflix: yes. Whatever you want. No guilt. My daughter picked. I did not object to a single selection, including the things I would have normally redirected. You are recovering. The algorithm is your friend this week.
The thing I want to talk about is the feet. When you are sick and recovering, everything hurts more than usual. Your muscles are tired from fighting. Your body has been in a battle and won, and it is asking for acknowledgment. I finally, in the middle of post-flu week, put my feet in the massager I found a while back for my Tuesday nights — and I kept them there for forty-five minutes. Heat and pressure and rolling kneading and the absolute luxury of someone — something — attending to the parts of me that never get attended to.
My daughter knocked on the door and I did not answer because I was asleep with my feet in a massager and I have zero regrets about this.
Recovery is not lazy. Recovery is what lets you get back up. Honor it.
You came through something. Whether it's the flu or something bigger or just a long hard season — you came through it. Take the soup. Take the rest. Take the twenty minutes of something attending to your tired feet.
Buckle up, buttercup. You can't drive well on an empty tank. Fill it back up.
✦ This is what found me ✦
You've earned something just for you. (Affiliate link — costs you nothing extra.)
Electric Foot Massager with Heat
Heat, kneading rollers, and compression — exactly what post-flu, post-hard-season, post-everything feet need. Plug in. Put your feet in. Stay there. You've been through it. Let something take care of you for a change.
Here's the link. You've earned it. →Weighted Blanket — 15lb
For the recovery days when your body needs to feel held. Heavy glass beads, even pressure, the closest thing to someone sitting with you when you're too tired to ask for anything. Use it every night until you feel like yourself again.
Here's the link. You've earned it. →