Upside Down

I couldn't be a nurse.

Sure, I can take care of my kids for a few days while they are sick. It's the mommy in me that allows me to do so, but even my "mommy-ness" has it's limits. After so long, all my empathy and understanding and gentleness and kindness just gets sucked dry.  I start feeling like a caged animal. I want to claw at my skin and run screaming out the door... My hat is tipped to the nurses and professional caretakers to the sick and elderly. I just couldn't do it.

I just wrote a big long post, and then realized it was almost the exact same thing I wrote last week. whoops.

So where I left off was on Friday.  Hubby was feeling better, but on Saturday he relapsed and was back in bed for 2 more days. He finally went back to work on Tuesday. Port thankfully started feeling better on Sunday, but it was at the peak of Kiddo feeling bad so it was pretty frustrating for him. He wanted to run around the house after being cooped up and immobile for most of about 4 days, and Kiddo could barely move. Port would cry and cry that he wanted Kiddo to run - it was truly pitiful.

Kiddo was still spiking a fever off and on all day Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday he finally seemed to be heading back to his normal little self, but for some reason he had almost completely lost his hearing. He said his ears didn't hurt or feel full, but we had to yell right in his face for him to know what we were saying. I thought I was going to be able to send him back to school on Thursday, but then right before bed on Wednesday night he spiked a fever again. It shot up to 104.5.

I was at the end of my patience and sanity by that point. I had been dealing with 3 sick people for a week. I got very irritated with Kiddo - not one of my finer moments for sure. Thursday morning I was done and defeated, so I called the doctor. Turns out he has a massive double ear infection caused by a mycoplasma infection. The boy had walking pneumonia. The doctor said that is probably what all the boys had - most people get over it on their own and it presents itself in very much the same way the flu does.  And they are normally misdiagnosed or not diagnosed at all because it goes away in a week or so. But in Kiddo's case, the ears presented the infection and it was clear that was what he had. So, he got a big ol' dose of antibiotic and is starting to feel better. His hearing was a lot better yesterday, but today it seemed to be gone again. He went back to school on Friday (after missing 5 school days and being sick for a whole week!) but he was totally exhausted by the time I picked him up.

And Port was doing fine all week until I brought him over to my friend's house for a bit while I took in a meeting with a bride.  When I picked him up he was warm. Today his nose was running all day and this evening he had a lot of goop in his eyes. I cannot do this again!

Tonight Kiddo started talking about wanting to go to bed at about 6PM. That is not a good sign either.

Me? Well, so far I seem to have escaped it. I started running a fever last Friday. That day I went to the grocery store and bought a 2# bag of clementine oranges.  I finished off the bag on Saturday and bought another. I just kept eating oranges - every time I could think about it; every time I walked into the kitchen I peeled one. And I hate oranges. I am a huge fan of citrus, but I have never been able to eat oranges very often.  But I did; I ate them all day for days. Each one was like a shot of afrin - they would clear up my sinuses and they made me feel so much better.

And I never got sick. The fever stopped Friday night and I was spared this nasty thing that took down my whole family. So far, so good. I am still eating them, just not as often. I am kind of getting sick of them. In the last week I've consumed probably 7 pounds of the clementines. Ick.

I may be glowing orange by Monday.

Until,
D :)