House of the Sick

Is it that time of year already?  It seems so in our household.  It started over a week ago when Ryan developed a cold.  I can always count on getting one from him.  It’s inevitable.  So, I waited my turn but popped Zicam every three hours in the hopes that it would lessen my sick time.  Boy, was I wrong. 

Last Monday, I started to get the dry throat that comes right before the cold.  By Monday night, I was feeling the aches, chills, sore throat, and full run-down feeling.  Then it all went down hill.  I woke up early Tuesday morning nauseous and continued to throw up for two hours. 

As a side note, this was more than enough of a reminder that I’m done with having kids.  I cannot imagine a more worse feeling than nausea/vomiting.  I love my kids, but I barely made it through nine months of vomiting.

Since I have plenty of experience with nausea, I know my body pretty well, and after about two hours I knew I needed to get to the ER because I would get dehydrated.  Sure enough, my muscles started to tingle and then lock up.  If you’ve ever had this happen, it’s horrible at the moment but then pretty funny to look back at imagining what I must have looked like.  More on that in a moment.

Poor Josh was trying to get two kids ready while keeping them away from me.  I begged him to drop me off at the ER first.  So, here I come  in pjs with a blanket around me walking through the ER.  Because my muscles were freezing up, I could barely talk and my hands were merely frozen in a c-shape.  I mean, quite a sight!  Unfortunately, this is not the first time I’ve shown up in the ER looking like this.

Three hours of sleep and a few bags of fluid later, I called my husband to come get me, and I left the ER with a prescription for Zofran—my best friend for years. The strep test was negative, and I was diagnosed with a “virus.” Meanwhile, Josh scrubbed the house, did mounds of laundry, and vowed to not get anywhere near me.  I continued to sleep the rest of that day and all of the next day.  Wednesday night, Tyler had a fever of 100 and then on Thursday night had a fever of 102.  Luckily, it was gone during the school days, but came around at night.  Yes, I sent my child to school full of Motrin. It’s what working parents have to do sometimes.

Meanwhile, I was not feeling much better but finally made it back to work on Thursday.  While the nausea was gone, my cold was in full force.  After a week of this “virus” and three days out from work, I went back to the doctor yesterday to finally find out that I have strep.  Within 12 hours of my first dose of Amoxicillin, I feel like a new woman.  Good Lord, it’s about time!

The only person to not have caught this bug is Josh.  And he might divorce me if cough anywhere in his direction.  So, here’s to hoping the sickness is out the door!