So I work in a medical office, and its fairly new so at the moment I am the only employee aside from the doctor. I do all the front desk responsibilities (scheduling, talking with insurance companies, answering phones, etc.) on top of also doing the medical assistant responsibilities (taking vitals, cleaning the rooms and office, etc.) So basically if I'm not there nothing gets done. Well about two days ago I came down with what I think is either a stomach virus or food poisoning. Was throwing up for about 12 hours straight to the point of just throwing up stomach acid because I couldn't even keep fluids down. Muscle pain, dry heaving, shivering, cramping, you name it. I was still asked to go in that morning and had to say I physically couldn't go in to work. The next day I hadn't thrown up yet but was still aching, nauseous, and exhausted. I considered not going in again to have some time to recover until the next day but was even asked to come in early anyways. Seeing as I'm the only employee I don't have much I can do. I told my boss I would not be coming in early so I could have as much time to rest as possible, but its the next day after that and my health hasn't improved much. Anytime I get sick the reaction at work is really just “awe I'm sorry :(” and I'm honestly having trouble knowing what to do.
I have a hard time setting boundaries because when I do anything slightly wrong it feels like I'm being talked down to in a condescending manner. What's a better way to go about it? I feel like I could say I broke both my arms and the response would be “well you can still use your hands right?”
Its also worth mentioning that I have never worked in this field before as I'm only about to turn 20 and am completely building my skills up from scratch, so I'm not as familiar with this type of work etiquette I guess. I've always been the person to cover shifts for others or come in when I wasn't scheduled but they asked. That's the type of person I am, but this situation just didn't sit right with me. Any advice is appreciated. I'm sorry if this isn't the right subreddit to put this under but reading posts under it people seem to give good advice about work.