When it's more than just under the weather

Health was never my priority but I've never really questioned my well being. Like normal humans, i do get sick, but only once in a blue moon. I've always been confident that i was generally healthy and physiologically immune to illnesses. Yet last week's malady got me crawling in my deathbed. I doubted myself then. It was, as far as my entire existence was concerned, the worst period of my life ever (in a health status point of view). I caught a cold. Yeah, a common cold or flu? or whatsoever. It's not my first time to get a cold! But my first time to experience the worst feeling of having a cold. Just few days before that i sent an emoticon to my mother. A "sick" emoticon. But i was very okay at that time. She thought i was sick and i told her i just wanted to sleep for 3 days straight. 2 days later i started sneezing but i thought it's a normal response to the cold temperature at work and outdoors since winter was approaching. A day after i felt abnormally cold and i felt like my chest was tightening. At night after dinner i suddenly had chills. I felt my entire body was burning and that heat was escaping from my eyes and ears. I cried so hard because the feeling was really really bad. My roommate then gave me paracetamol which i took hesitantly, and i started sweating minutes later. I felt better and was asleep in no time. The next day i woke up very ill again. I couldn't explain how i was feeling. I was shivering, everything was hurting from head to toe, i was short of breath, my throat was very sore, my head felt very heavy, my body felt like floating and i felt very very tired. My knees were aching so hard that going to the bathroom was a real struggle. I still went to work tho. I thought i'd be okay eventually. But after 2 hours i had chills again and it was hard to breath. A coworker accompanied me to a doctor who assessed and asked few questions. Then she prescribed different kinds of meds. In the Philippines i almost never took meds for anything.
I had to ask for a sick leave that day because i couldn't stand it anymore and I thought i'd pass out. I started taking the meds and slept the entire time and i actually felt much better the next morning. I went to work again and felt very much back at my system.
But at night i had the same episode of chills and fever again and my joints felt so tender it was very painful to move. All i wanted was to stay in bed and never move again. I felt my head was like going to burst. I didn't go to work the next day but i didn't feel rested. I wanted my mother, i wanted to buy a plane ticket and fly back home, or i wanted to die. Feverish people think of foolish things they say, just as i did. I lay in bed the whole day, weeping and aching, no appetite, no strength to do anything. At night i was awakened by uncontrollable cough and high fever and i thought my life was going to end.
The next 2 days i went to work feeling the same but i didn't care anymore what's gonna happen. I said i was going to die anyway so better use my remaining life being productive. Being sick was a real setback, especially for me who is very much on my feet all the time. I don't mind if I have a day off or not, or if miss things because of work.
After few days of continuously taking the meds and my roommates forcing me to eat, i started to get better and feel better. Thinking about what i went through, i realized maybe i took my health for granted. I was always doing something and i never felt tired. I easily felt guilty when i just let time pass unproductively.
I am not a workaholic. I just get that sense of satisfaction when i do something, big or small, so i always want to keep going. Or when somebody needs a hand or something needs to be done which means sacrificing my rest, i don't give a second thought.
I don't know if my experiance was a lesson meant to be learned, but i'm back on my feet again. Maybe i just have to be a little more cautious and conscious of my health. Have to practice on this one.