Last Wednesday, I had a tickle in my throat. I coughed a little, went to the gym, Sydney's Christmas party and paid it no mind.
On Thursday, i had invited half the neighborhood over to do graham cracker houses. I was starting to feel sicker but I ignored it. i took a nap, took the kids to swim and went to bed early.
By Friday, everything hurt. It was now December 21st and it was not a great time to be getting sicker. But I had a swim meet to help run. This was a huge event for our team and I needed to be there. All 3 of my kids, plus 60 other kids on our team were competing in our very first home meet. This was not an event to be pushed off or neglected. I swallowed some more ibuprofen, downed a zip fizz, bought a large coke and cheered as loud as I could for our new 8 state qualifiers. I was all smiles. There was nothing to NOT be happy about. It was a collaborative effort and everyone pitched in 300% and it was a HUGE success.
Then I got home - took 3 nyquil tablets and went to bed at 8. I woke up at midnight and everything hurt again. I took 3 more nyquil, 4 ibuprofen and went back to sleep until 8.
December 22nd and in tears, I asked Jace to take me to Urgent Care. Finding out it would be a 1-2 hour wait, I sent him to costco, the drycleaners and back home to check on the kiddos while I slept in the waiting room and coughed and the nice nurse came over to check my oxygen levels occassionally. She offered me a juice box and I started to cry because it sounded and felt like heaven on my raw throat.
I finally got back to the exam room and knew I was screwed. It was 3 days before Christmas and the last time I felt so sick was when I had pneumonia.
"please, God, don't let this be pneumonia."
Prayers are what they are and instead of pneumonia, I tested positive for strep throat, influenza B with RSV.
He gave me a breathing treatment and steroids and the tightness in my chest loosened. He armed my husband and I with several prescriptions, told me to take lots of ibuprofen and get lots of rest. No argument there. I had nothing left.
This came on the heels of my son being put on steroids for his cough/asthma attack at the allergist on Friday morning, as well as his own breathing treatment and epi shot. Before retiring to my own bed, i gave Jace the continued instructions for Gavin's medications.
Christmas Eve came and I was on the mend, after two days in bed, but still so tired. I took the kids to breakfast at the donut shop and then let them play at Trafalga. I'm grateful they can all play there with very little work on my part.
We came home for lunch at 12:00 and then I went back to bed (again) Jace got home about 2:00 and we headed out to a movie after a Skype session with Santa. Oh, how we love a Santa who will take a break from his busy holiday schedule to visit with us. It made me smile.
We saw Frankenweenie and then ate at our favorite Brazilian-stuff-yourself-silly restaurant, Tucanos. The amount I was able to eat was rather pathetic but it tasted good and my body took to the protein and yummy veggies. I mustered up the energy to get everyone home and complete our traditions - although, we simply watched Luke 2 instead of reading it, acting it our or doing anything more involved then cuddling under a blanket. For this year, it was just good enough.
After getting everything wrapped and realizing my state of sup-par consciousness led to a neglect of shopping for Christmas breakfast ingredients, we resided ourselves to making it work with what we had. It was a bit of a smorgasbog/buffet but no one seemed to notice what we were lacking and only enjoyed what we had. It was a true tender mercy for this weary momma.
Christmas morning came and my first order of business was to get Aj his ADHD medication so that he would be a little less crazy after the initial chaos of the morning. By the time the presents were all opened and breakfast was completed, his world was starting to make sense again. With my cough finally starting to ease without the magic of codeine, I went back to bed after breakfast and slept for a long time. I woke up, still exhausted, but pleasantly feeling stronger and like I am definitely on the back end of this nastiness. I took a shower and went in and checked on Aj.
He had been building his brand-new Ninjango lego set for over 2 hours.... no tantrums, no frustration, no impulsive breaking up the whole project and starting over again.
Seriously, praise Jesus.
3 days ago, I wasn't sure how, between me and Gavin, how Christmas would come and be okay. 6 months ago, i wasn't confident in Aj's ability to complete any lengthy project without constant reassurance and supervision.
For probably the thousandth moment of my life, I have been grateful to modern-day science and medications for making my life, my Christmas, my children's lives so much better. I believe in a lot of things "supernatural" and "spiritual" but I mostly believe that God has blessed us with science, critical reasoning and rational thought to increase our well-being and extend our lives.
I thank the Good Lord for doctors and science... Today - and every day. I would not be here without you.
May God Bless You to see all the miracles in your life.
Merry Christmas.
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