Get Down with the Sickness

I've been sick for a week and a half, so I finally decided to see my doctor. Earlier this week I missed some of my classes and work because I was too sick to get out of bed. Later this week, when I was feeling a little better, I went back to my usual routine. People could see that I wasn't exactly well, so they asked me what was wrong. Not being a doctor, I just told them "I am sick." Most people took a look at me and said, "No, you probably just have allergies." When I tried to convince them other wise, they'd just say, "It's the change and the weather and allergies that are getting to you."

I want to shoot those people.

I do NOT have fucking allergies. Allergies do give you red eyes and a runny nose, but just because that's all you see when I'm well enough to leave my room does not mean those are the only symptoms I have. Do allergies give you sinus headaches that feel like spikes are being driven into your head through your eyes? Do allergies give you a scratchy, swollen throat that has inexplicable white patches on it? Do allergies make you so tired that you sleep twelve hours a day? Do allergies make you so weak that you can barely get out of bed some mornings? Do fucking allergies make you hack up disgusting chunks of a phlegm-snot hybrid that clogs your throat and makes your eyes red and watery and your nose run so that people think you have allergies and you want to punch them in the face when they condescendingly underestimate your illness and smirk at your at your "need" to miss work and school "just because you're under the weather" . . . .

Oh man, maybe I need to see a psychiatrist, too.