Ache

I know, I fell off the planet. The day of my last post, Kiddo came home from school with very bright, red cheeks.  By dinner time, he had developed a lacy rash on his arms.  Because I was going to be working on my birthday Saturday, we decided to go out that Friday night for my birthday dinner, and everything went really well. It was a nice night; normally I am hesitant to take Port out to restaurants because he is just at that age that he is very difficult to deal with. He doesn't like to sit still, he can get really loud and that, among other things, makes most meals out pretty unbearable for me. But anyway, I guess the birthday mojo was working for me and dinner was a very pleasant event. By the time we got home, Kiddo's rash had spread to his legs.

Thankfully it was only Fifth Disease, so he didn't have any other issues; he just looked funny. Within a couple of days it was gone. I shot a beautiful wedding with Allen on Saturday and then on Sunday had an amazing senior session in Lockhart and McKinney Falls State Park.  It was a fun but tiring weekend. On Monday, I had what I call a wedding hangover - after shooting weddings I am often very sore for the next few days. It didn't really hit me until Monday though; I guess it was because I had a long session on Sunday as well.

The week went pretty well and then on Friday I woke up feeling like I had been hit by a truck.  Every part of my body ached and I was in serious pain. At first, I thought maybe I had finally succumbed to the flu.  All these weeks of not getting what everyone else had finally caught up to me. But, as the day went on, I realized that if I didn't think about the pain, the rest of me felt fine. I had no other symptoms aside from that.  It was very strange - I felt like every joint in my body had severe arthritis, with the pain multiplied by 1000.  I ached in places I didn't even know could ache. My hands, feet, ankles and knees were the worst, but I ached in my arms and my neck, my collar bone and shoulder blades. I had a headache as well.

And then I remembered, when reading about Fifth Disease, a little blurb about how it is much worse in adults.  I remembered reading that adults suffering dealt with body aches and joint inflammation.  And I remembered that a sweet friend of mine and her husband were afflicted with the same thing after their children had Fifth Disease. It all became clear.

Fifth Disease is sort of like Chicken Pox in that, once you have had it, you are very unlikely to get it again. Apparently I had never had it as a child.

Thank your lucky stars if you did.

I had to stop Google-ing it after a while, because I started hitting all this information on complications that can result if you have an autoimmune disorder. I am so thankful that it didn't activate or irritate my lupus, because it could have been very scary.

But, it still was brutal.  Ibuprofen took the edge off, but for the most part it was just tons of unrelenting pain.  The third and fourth morning was by far the worst. Swelling had set in and I would wake with my hands and feet looking worse than they did when I was pregnant and had pre-eclampsia.  I couldn't get my rings off and things like typing and writing were very uncomfortable. I couldn't grip anything and was afraid I would drop anything I touched.

The second day just happened to be Saturday. I was scheduled to shoot a wedding in Dallas with a friend and fellow photographer. It was a full day event.

I have to say, I think that wedding saved me. The drive there and back (4+ hours each way in the car) was brutal. I popped ibuprofen every chance I could and just tried not to think about it. But once we were there, the adrenalin kicked in and I really didn't feel too bad for most of the day. The only time it really bothered me was when I tried to sit down and my knees just couldn't handle it. It was a blessing that I *had* to move all day.

Sunday was pretty painful, but thankfully I had the wonderful distraction of dropping the boys off with my inlaws for a few days! Woo hoo! Monday was pretty bad too, but as long as I stayed active the pain was manageable. The more I moved, the better I felt.

We were all supposed to go to Big Bend for spring break, but with all the pain I was in, and the wonderful addition of Kiddo getting an ear infection, we canceled our trip. Thankfully, Grammy and Happy volunteered to take the boys on Sunday for a few days for fun, so we, of course, let them.  The boys had a great time, but Kiddo's ear infection got worse and moved to both ears, and by the time we got the boys back on Wednesday he was running a fever and had burst an ear drum.  The other ear drum burst later that afternoon. I was starting to feel a lot better on Wednesday, thankfully.

So we got the kids back and then I was up all night with Kiddo and his poor ears. He was in a lot of pain. I took him in to the dr Thursday morning and sure enough he had perforated both ear drums.  The goo and big glops of gunk that were coming out of his ears was totally disgusting. He got another script for antibiotics and some drops for his ears and he began feeling better that day, thankfully.

The only bad part is, he can't hear a thing.

The only way he can really hear us is if we get right in his right ear and yell.

*sigh*

So that's where I've been. I am shooting another wedding tomorrow and have another senior session next weekend. I am a blissfully busy girl.

Now, if I could only get everyone healthy. ;)

Until,
D :)