Until you experience another one of these self-inflicted mini-crises and find yourself agonizing over what should be a relatively easy decision A couple of assumptions here, not knowing you personally: (1) you are an adult human being possessing at least some level of secondary education and (2) you are a professional aviator, a position that often requires you to absorb information and arrive at a decision, sometimes in short order. My suggestion to you would be to act like it.

I agree with the other responses on here about manning up and doing what you have to do. If you feel like you absolutely positively have to go to work, you should have left before this became an issue. If you're the kind of person who would rather ride out something like this with your family and ensure that they are taken care of then tell the company you're not coming to work for whatever reason you think best. A sick call is a sick call. If you chose to play that card then be prepared to play some hardball (depending on your company) but the reality is that proving a false sick call is tough for the company (unless you call in sick and then non-rev to Hawaii, but then you're just a moron) and rarely worth their effort. If thats the only option you are given (lack of a commuter clause) then use it. And if that bothers you, push your MEC to add a commuter clause to the next contract.