It should be an immutable law of nature that if you get really sick, you are a granted at least a three month reprieve before you can get really sick again. Alas, no such law exists, and so here I am, sidelined with strep throat, just a few weeks after getting wiped out with the Christmas stomach flu. Again, it's the kids. They're human vectors of illness, and for some reason what they get they always give to me. S usually avoids it. She can share a bed with her sick children and be totally fine, whereas if I'm just in the same airspace as them I get infected.
I'm actually feeling much better tonight than I was yesterday. That was as sick as I've ever been in my entire life, literally. I was running a temperature; my entire body ached; and it felt like somebody had lodged a burning piece of charcoal in my throat. I didn't get out of bed for longer than ten minutes total across the entire day. It was brutal.
But, it did lead to one funny moment. I went to sleep in our basement super early, like 4:30 pm, and I woke up at 8:30 the next morning, and I could hear S getting the kids ready for school. I had a parent-teacher conference scheduled with Lil' S1's teacher, so I texted her to tell her I wouldn't be able to make it. Here's the transcript with only the names changed:
Me: Hi Ms. M. I'm sorry but I have to cancel our conference today about Lil' S1. I'm too sick to come in today.
Ms. M.: Hi. It's tomorrow.
S (who was copied on the thread): He won't be able to come tomorrow, he hasn't left bed all day today, I'm fair certain he will be in bed all day tomorrow too, can we reschedule?
Ms. M.: Ok. I hope that you feel better. 4 pm on Wednesday?
Me (very confused before a little light goes off in my mucous-addled head): Yes, I can do that. I'm so discombobulated I thought it was Friday morning already! Sorry for the confusion.
Ms. M.: No worries. You must be pretty ill. Rest well.
Yep, that's right. It was actually only 8:30 pm, and the noise I heard was S getting the kids ready for bed. I was a bit embarrassed, but I didn't mind too much, because it meant I might feel better in the real morning.
But, I didn't. I might have had I slept, but that was damn near impossible. My body wasn't in sleep mode anymore, and even if it was, Lil' S2 made any hope of prolonged shuteye impossible. He's been sick all week with various respiratory ailments, but now there was a new thing in the mix: an earache. He would wake up every 45 minutes howling about his ear. His regular pediatrician is in Ghana right now doing missionary work. So, the only thing to do was to wait until 8:00 am when the urgent care center would open.* I kept looking at the clock: 4 more hours, 3 more hours, 2 more hours...
*I suppose we also could have taken him to the ER, but if we did that, we would probably still be there.
We got to the center at 8:05. (And it would have 8:00 on the nose had Lil' S2 not throw a fit about having to go to the doctor.) I volunteered to take him, because I wanted to get myself examined as well. I ticked off strep as a possible option for me in my head, but I didn't think that was it for him, because his throat was one of the few things he wasn't complaining about. But, we both test positive. I'm actually kinda relieved. I've never had strep throat, but from what I know of it, it's easily curable with antibiotics, and you start to feel a lot better shortly after taking them. Indeed, so far that has been the case. I'm cautiously optimistic.
The downside is that it is super contagious. And Lil' S1 started complaining about a sore throat of his own today. S also said she feels like something might be going on there (but she also might just be in her head about it). So, they both are at the urgent care center now getting swabs of their own. Who knows? We might go 4-for-4! That sounds like a great way to spend a long weekend, huh? Well, at least we have a bunch of devices, and I just found out you can stream the entire Curb Your Enthusiasm catalog on HBO NOW. At least I'll have something to watch.
Until next time...
I'm actually feeling much better tonight than I was yesterday. That was as sick as I've ever been in my entire life, literally. I was running a temperature; my entire body ached; and it felt like somebody had lodged a burning piece of charcoal in my throat. I didn't get out of bed for longer than ten minutes total across the entire day. It was brutal.
But, it did lead to one funny moment. I went to sleep in our basement super early, like 4:30 pm, and I woke up at 8:30 the next morning, and I could hear S getting the kids ready for school. I had a parent-teacher conference scheduled with Lil' S1's teacher, so I texted her to tell her I wouldn't be able to make it. Here's the transcript with only the names changed:
Me: Hi Ms. M. I'm sorry but I have to cancel our conference today about Lil' S1. I'm too sick to come in today.
Ms. M.: Hi. It's tomorrow.
S (who was copied on the thread): He won't be able to come tomorrow, he hasn't left bed all day today, I'm fair certain he will be in bed all day tomorrow too, can we reschedule?
Ms. M.: Ok. I hope that you feel better. 4 pm on Wednesday?
Me (very confused before a little light goes off in my mucous-addled head): Yes, I can do that. I'm so discombobulated I thought it was Friday morning already! Sorry for the confusion.
Ms. M.: No worries. You must be pretty ill. Rest well.
Yep, that's right. It was actually only 8:30 pm, and the noise I heard was S getting the kids ready for bed. I was a bit embarrassed, but I didn't mind too much, because it meant I might feel better in the real morning.
But, I didn't. I might have had I slept, but that was damn near impossible. My body wasn't in sleep mode anymore, and even if it was, Lil' S2 made any hope of prolonged shuteye impossible. He's been sick all week with various respiratory ailments, but now there was a new thing in the mix: an earache. He would wake up every 45 minutes howling about his ear. His regular pediatrician is in Ghana right now doing missionary work. So, the only thing to do was to wait until 8:00 am when the urgent care center would open.* I kept looking at the clock: 4 more hours, 3 more hours, 2 more hours...
*I suppose we also could have taken him to the ER, but if we did that, we would probably still be there.
We got to the center at 8:05. (And it would have 8:00 on the nose had Lil' S2 not throw a fit about having to go to the doctor.) I volunteered to take him, because I wanted to get myself examined as well. I ticked off strep as a possible option for me in my head, but I didn't think that was it for him, because his throat was one of the few things he wasn't complaining about. But, we both test positive. I'm actually kinda relieved. I've never had strep throat, but from what I know of it, it's easily curable with antibiotics, and you start to feel a lot better shortly after taking them. Indeed, so far that has been the case. I'm cautiously optimistic.
The downside is that it is super contagious. And Lil' S1 started complaining about a sore throat of his own today. S also said she feels like something might be going on there (but she also might just be in her head about it). So, they both are at the urgent care center now getting swabs of their own. Who knows? We might go 4-for-4! That sounds like a great way to spend a long weekend, huh? Well, at least we have a bunch of devices, and I just found out you can stream the entire Curb Your Enthusiasm catalog on HBO NOW. At least I'll have something to watch.
Until next time...
Not the weaker sex: Estrogen protects women against the flu, study finds https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/01/160112093424.htm
ReplyDeleteI believe it. At Xmas all four of the males got sick, none of the females did!
ReplyDelete