Dickens Sick

If I was a character in a Jane Austen or Dickens novel I would probably be dead. My sister would have been sent for, my children not allowed into my sickroom, and a doctor who makes house calls would have been sitting next to the fireplace in an uncomfortable chair. The curtains on my large canopy bed would be drawn.
For the first time in eight years I actually took to my bed for an illness. I did not leave my room on Saturday. Food was brought up to me at my request. I did not take a shower. I did not read. I slept fitfully all day. The windows were too bright to let the curtains be pulled open.
It was the kind of sick where you see people on TV riding bicycles, eating at restaurants, and riding in cars and you think, I will NEVER be able to do that again. I will never be well enough to leave the house ever again.
And then it was Sunday and I took a shower and rode in a car and went to a restaurant. Then I immediately collapsed into my bed upon returning home and napped for 2 hours from the exertion.
Today is better. I had to take the children to school, again. I have taxes that need to be done before the end of the week and laundry that must be done to try and kill whatever virus attacked me.

Again if I were a  character in a novel written in the 1800's I would be able to convalesce for weeks to get my strength back from the awful fever that I was afflicted with. What ever happened to that? Why is that not permissible anymore? I could definitely spend at least another 2 days in my bed. Is it because no one has servants anymore? Is is because a mother is not allowed to be sick? Is it because the world would grind to a halt with my absence? I'm not sure, but I sure would love to have certain favors granted to me because of my recent illness.

But the world still revolves. I had to buy 2 Katy Perry tickets today. We are all out of band-aids. There are bills that need paid. I need a balance transfer for one of my credit cards (Suck it Discover card. You will never charge me 20% interest). There are books that need read and a dishwasher that needs emptied.

I would totally exchange a 21st century sick bed for a 19th century sick bed, as long as I could bring along a large bottle of Tylenol.