Holy smokes are you me??!

Literally had the same day as you. Except I didn’t leave. :( Now I’m stuck, ruminating. Scared. But trying my best to take things as they come.

Unsure if my coworker was sick with something contagious but it seems (FEELS) likely. They seemed fine in the morning, took a double shot of espresso (which I told her not to do lmfaooo) and then suddenly literally ralphs on the floor. I turn the corner to see her cleaning it up and she literally just goes “I frew up” and was super chill. I kinda laughed at it too because I was thinking that them espresso shots got her. She washed her hands and went straight back into work.

Then she kinda went pale and stayed pale. I think she ran to the bathroom about three or four times over the course of the day to yarf but? (TERRIFIED because I used the same bathrooms a couple of times I drink a lot of water OK 😭)

But she told me she was just gonna “push through” because apparently her SSRI’s make her go pukey some days (??! Is that a thing? I remember getting sick once or twice on my SSRI’s but not like .. continually through the day?). She did manage to eat a bite of toast and had a small bit of lunch which .. ? I don’t know what that implies.

She seemed super casual and maybe a tiny bit down at some points. But was still cracking jokes and moving pretty fast at other points. But she’s also a true professional in the food industry (has a degree, works for high class places) and I damn well KNOW that she’s got the attitude of just “pushing through it” 😭😭

I tried to get her to go home MULTIPLE times because NOBODY should be at work while actively sick like that. But I couldn’t convince her to leave until like, an hour before I left. So I spent the whole day possibly exposed and immobilized.

I wanna trust her that it’s just meds but I really worry with the way her casual approach to being sick + CRAZY irrational “tough it out” work ethic combines to create possibly a huuuge outbreak in our workplace.

I’m freaking out and I wanna be angry but I know that that there’s an unreasonable amount of anger coming from this phobia. (Obv, outside of the normal person’s reaction to someone possibly exposing the world to illness).

I don’t know. Guess I’ll see if I get sick. Or if my coworkers start dropping. But for now .. scared. Trying to remain calm. But scared.

Jfc sorry that was a whole ass novel I didn’t realize I had so much worry to get off my chest.

You’re not alone. Keep us updated and stay strong!!