Tag Archives: Sick

Clutter and Illness

I feel like the house and our lives have been in total disarray since we returned home from vacation. The morning after we drove back into town from Christmas I unpacked the car with fervor because I had a feeling that I was going to be sick. I knew that I had a lot to get done before illness completely overtook me. I organized the new toys, took down Christmas decorations, and did laundry while Tom slept and let the kids do whatever they wanted. Now let me say that Tom was not sleeping just because he was tired, but he was sleeping because unbeknownst to us, he was getting the flu. Thankfully, that is not what I came down with – I only had a 12 hour stomach bug. I never thought that I would be thankful to ONLY throw up. No one else has gotten majorly sick, but the boys have both gotten pink eye, Wilson had a 12 hour fever, and Faith had a double ear infection.  Faith never once complained about her ears hurting, but she hasn’t been able to hear for over a week.  I finally took her back to the doctor yesterday so that she could get an antibiotic to clear up the infection that has begun behind her ear.  Yes, we have had quite the infirmary around here over the last two weeks.

We are still in the middle of remodeling the master bath so my bedroom has been covered in tools and dust for almost a month now.  There should be great progress in the project this weekend and I am excited to see what it will look like after it is complete.  It will be beautiful, I am sure.  We are also scraping the ceiling in the hall downstairs since the popcorn was coming off anyway.  The house is going to look great (other than the kitchen) when we try to sell it this spring. I am going to do everything that I want done in the next house BEFORE I move into it so that I can enjoy while I live there.

Of course, everyone knows that I love a project and typically have three of them going on at the same time, so this is pretty standard fare for our house.  :)  So while I should be painting the bathrooms, I am instead working on a photo collage, cleaning out closets and putting together bookshelves. There is a big difference in “wanting” to do a project and “having” to do a project.  So far, I have been working on the wants, not the haves.

Despite the clutter, dirt and illness, we have been doing well as a family and I feel blessed to even have these problems of privilege.  We have a beautiful house, money to remodel, and doctors available to us for medicine.  I seriously can’t complain.

 

Everyone is sick

It has been a rough and sickly two weeks in our house.  It started two weeks ago when I got strep throat.  That took about three days to diagnose and begin to heal.  Then Faith had a fever all day Sunday.  Thankfully, she was better by Monday afternoon.

By Sunday afternoon, Tom came home and said that he wasn’t feel very well. He laid down on the couch and didn’t get up for a day and a half.  I finally made him get up, go to the doctor and then quarantined him to our bedroom.  It turns out that he has the flu.  He has been in our bedroom, alone and sleeping for two days now.  I think that he is finally coming out of it.

On Tuesday night, both Miller and Wilson woke up with high fevers.  Wilson’s got up to 104 and I am sure that Miller’s was the same.  I have been giving them Ibuprofen and Tylonol as often as I can.  They both look so pitiful.  I have really been praying that they don’t have the flu.  I hope that it is just a quick fever like Faith had.

I don’t know where all of this illness is coming from.  We don’t get the flu shot each year.  I don’t believe in it.  There are too many chemicals and nasty stuff in the shot.  After all of the years that no one in our family has gotten a flu shot, I guess it is about time that one of us finally got the flu.  I am sure that we are all bringing more germs into the house now that all of us are going to school during the week.  Classrooms are just little germ breeding grounds.  I will definitely be washing my hands more often and I have already tried to sanitize as much of the house as I can.  Hopefully, this will be it for the winter!

Sick. Again.

I am typically only sick once every other year or so. Now that I am teaching preschool I have gotten sick twice in the last month. I am not usually big on using hand sanitizer or the over washing of my hands, but I have realized that I need to step it up, at least a little bit. I do not want to go through again.  This time I ended up with Strep Throat.  I had a fever on Tuesday and by Wednesday even the outside of my throat hurt.  I went to the Minute Clinic at CVS.  It is brilliant!!  I do not have a regular doctor and so when I get sick I don’t usually know where to go.  CVS has a nurse practitioner that can prescribe meds and can do a quick Strep test. The best part is that it only costs as much as a doctor’s co-pay.  For me, the whole thing only cost an hour of my time and $30.  That is better than a doctor visit.

That being said, being sick has made me grateful for one thing: my parents. On Tuesday, my fever wasn’t too high yet and so I was able to watch Miller in the morning.  My dad offered to watch the kids for me while I took an hour and a half nap that afternoon.  Then, on Wednesday, I dropped the kids off for their full day at Grandma’s house.  I was able to go to CVS, watch two hours of Downton Abbey, and rest.  I was sooooo thankful.

Everyone tells me how lucky I am to have such able-bodied and willing parents.  They watch my kids all day on Mondays and Wednesdays.  This has been going on since I became pregnant with Miller (even though they have been watching “the cousins” on those days for many years).  My dad even says that the very reason he retired was so that he could take care of the “little people”. That works great for me!!  I appreciate the time that they give me, especially when I am sick.  Life doesn’t stop just because I don’t feel well.

So, today I feel better but not great.  My throat still hurts and I know that I still have a slight fever.  I was hoping that the penicillin would be a miracle drug and I would feel 100% better within 24 hours.  It wasn’t.  I do feel better and was able to take care of the kids today even though my patience wore thin at times.  I know that tomorrow will be better and yesterday I was given the gift of rest…which I am very thankful for.

A quick virus

I arrived at work on Friday at the school to find out that many of the kids were home with Rotovirus. This is an illness much like the flu (I think). The kids were throwing up and had diarrhea. Anyway, I didn’t think much about it until I got home from the playground yesterday and was getting ready to go out with a friend for dinner. All of a sudden my stomach began to hurt. As usual, I thought that I would just try to push through and maybe ignoring it would work. NOT!!

I went to dinner , sat and talked to my friend for an hour and felt sick the whole time. I even ordered a beer so that she wouldn’t really think I was sick. We had planned to go out weeks ago so I didn’t want to cancel. I made it through dinner without eating much. While I was on that side of town I rushed through Trader joes and got some essentials that we needed. I almost made it home without the inevitable happening……yep, I threw up! I quickly pulled onto a side street, rolled down the window and let it fly! Yuck! I couldn’t believe I did that. Luckily for me, and the rest of the family, it was a one time deal. I went to bed as soon as I got home and slept all night. The next day my stomach hurt but that was all. Poor Miller got a bit of it that morning too. So far, everyone else is in the clear. I had to miss my good friend’s baby shower tonight. I was a bit bummed about that, but I did have fun hanging out with the kids instead.

I hope all will be well tomorrow. There is a big breakfast at church and my parents are leaving for Sierra Leone, Africa right after church. I want to be there to pray for their trip and see them off.

Sick and tired

We have been dealing with fevers over the last week. Wilson had it first, miller second, and faith and I had it over the weekend. It is a high fever that last about 36 hrs. Of course the kids rebounded amazingly well. They can be sick one minute and then outside playing the next. Oh to be young again.

Unfortunatly, it has taken longer for me to get better. Mine has been more like a three day fever that turn into a major allergy sneeze fest. I was completely out if commission all day Sunday and half of Saturday. All I could do was sleep. Luckily it was Sunday so I could send everyone to church and be left home with no one to take care of. Today is Monday so the kids are at moms all day which gives me one more day to rest. I have already taken a nap. The only good thing about getting sick is that I don’t have to do anything. No dishes, no laundry, no cooking. We ordered pizza and the dishes are still piled in the sink.

After three days of being ill I am ready to be healthy again. It is no fun feeling bad and being unable to do anything. I typically get sick once a year….I hope that this is it.