Flu Week Reality

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I woke up knowing I was getting sick and did what so many working moms do anyway: I tried to outwork it. Two of my kids already had the flu, my body was starting to ache, and a major deadline still didn’t care. So I pushed through the day, got the priority project out, and then hit the wall hard. If you’ve ever felt that mix of pain, responsibility, and “I can’t let anyone down,” you’ll recognize every beat of this story.

I also talk about the kind of leadership that makes brutal weeks survivable. I’m incredibly grateful for the women I work with and for a boss who rolls up her sleeves, quality-checks the work, and shows up alongside the team instead of above it. That support doesn’t erase the guilt of taking an unscheduled sick day, but it changes everything about how safe it feels to be human at work.

On the practical side, I share what we leaned on at home, including elderberry supplements, Oscillococcinum, and a fresh juice mix with citrus, pineapple, and ginger to support inflammation and recovery. And then I zoom out to the bigger takeaway: sometimes getting sick is a forced full stop when you’ve been run down for too long. What if that pause is information, not just inconvenience?

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