Misery

Being the mom in the household, I have often taken for granted that I am usually the healthiest member of the household and I do like to rub this fact in whenever Casey is sick, since he generally eschews preventative measures such as exercise and vitamins (eschews - I'm studying for the GRE, can you tell?) Last year I can only remember getting sick once with a cold that lasted less than 2 days - I think I took some cold-eeze or zinc or something at the first symptom. Although the year before that I did get pretty sick, at which I time I realized that sometimes it is worthless to have a doctor in the house.

Well, I don't have the flu (got both flu shots this year, being pregnant and all) but I have the ugliest, nastiest, sneakiest cold ever. It started innocently on Monday night with a sore throat. Gradually on Tuesday I accumulated a slight cough. On Wednesday, my sore throat worsened and I woke up with nasal congestion and a headache. On Thursday, with the sore throat, nasal congestion and headache persisting and my cough worsening, I woke up with a slight case of pink eye in my right eye. By evening, I had an earache in my right ear, which got worse when I tried to go to bed, but I eventually made it to sleep. Now this morning I woke up with some gunk and slight pink eye in my left eye, which terrifies me that an earache in my left ear is in my near future.

And I'm eight months pregnant, so I'm already uncomfortable enough physically, so I don't need all of these other issues going on!

A new symptom each day - How many more symptoms can I possible get? And since I'm pregnant, I'm demure (another GRE word) to take medicine unless absolutely necessary (which Casey thinks is just a form of self-torture since lots of medicines have been proven safe) but I might have to take something besides Tylenol to combat some of these symptoms.

But Casey is home today, so I am taking a sick day. He got up with the kids this morning and got them all ready for school without any issues. Good practice for March ;-)

Back Again

In a recent post I declared that my family would be done with all of our illness by the end of February, thus enjoying March in complete health.  Apparently the Powers That Be thought that declaration was a bit arrogant and decided to unleash a dreadful disease upon me.  I didn't have the actual flu (my husband thinks he's an expert in these matters and insists that I did not have the flu) but it sure felt like it.  I was out completely for a week (really hard to do with two small children!) and still dragging for a second week.  Now I am finally on the mend and getting back to my regular routine.

Although I want to blog all about our trip to New York - visiting Casey's Aunt Mary and Grumpy (his grandpa) and my brother and niece and nephew, playing in snow, running a Shamrock Fun Run in freezing temperatures, and there's a great story about why for future plane trips I will pay extra for direct flights when traveling with children.  (The story ends at 3:00 in the morning and still 90 miles from my home).  But it's late and I really don't have the time for that right now, so I will leave you with a Conversation with Coulson -

On God: 

"I know what God looks like.  He has a beard.  A big beard.  Not a little one like Grandpa Bud.  The biggest beard ever!  It's even bigger than your hair!"

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In sickness and ... in more sickness

February has been an ugly month for us as my family has tried to acquire as many illnesses as possible.  Let me list the ways:

• bad, gunky, snotty colds - all four of us, Casey is still getting over his
• chronic cough - all of us, but Coulson had this nasty hacking sound last weekend that had Casey and I cracking up!
• pink eye - Coulson, me, Charlie (who so generously shared it with my dad)
• severe headaches - Casey
• a stomach bug - me, Chester (oh, that was nasty!)
• skin infections - Charlie
• iritis (maybe)- me, I couldn't drive for a few days (well, I had to drive, but it wasn't a good idea)
• eczema - Coulson

But Charlie takes the cake with this:

Pox Face

Pox Back

Yes, he has the chicken pox!  Although I remember it as a childhood rite of passage, today in the medical community it's kinda rare since there's a vaccine for it - a vaccine that my dr's office didn't have in stock at his one year check-up, so they said, "Oh well, we'll just give it to him at his 18 month check up."  Ha!  That's one less shot he'll need now.  Conveniently these strange chicken-pox-like bumps started to appear a couple days before his 18 month check-up.  So when the Dr saw him and confirmed the pox diagnosis, she invited all the nurses to come in and see this strange disease for themselves, since many had never seen it before.  Then as we left, one of the nurses put a sign on the door that says not to use the room for 3 days.  And she asked me not to let him walk in the halls.  I felt like an untouchable.  I've had to keep him away from the public for the past 6 days and it's been driving me crazy!  I should add cabin fever to the list of illnesses above.

Thankfully, the pox doesn't seem to bother him.  He never itched or scratched at the spots.  He was just a bit extra clingy to me - almost like how Coulson was at this age - on a good day.  But now he's getting better.  The spots are scabbing and he's not contagious anymore, so we're going to the grocery store tomorrow (oh, my life is so exciting!)

I decided that February is the month for us to be sick, and all that sickness will end once March begins.  So we welcome March with open arms!

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