Every year, December is the month of sickness. It usually hits me around my birthday, lasts through Christmas, and finishes up around our anniversary/Rex's birthday/New Years. I'm usually accompanied by two or three of the kids, and normally one or more of us has an ear infection. Traditionally, I am at the ER (or med clinic for me with no insurance) on either Christmas Eve or New Years Eve. Amazingly, I have come through December unscathed for the first time in history!
Unfortunately, I am the only one in the household to make it scot free. In Rex's words, he works in a petri dish, and therefore brings home the plague. It seemed to be the case, and he actually missed work because he had laryngitis for the first time. (That is usually my role. It's been so weird for me this month.) Rex has to be on his deathbed before missing work, but a teacher can't do much without a voice. Once his voice came back, he still went to work, despite body aches, fever/chills, and coughing/sore throat. He was sick for over 2 weeks, wrapping it up around Christmas. The kids caught the same thing about a week after him, although James' only seemed to last 1 week while the others' lasted 2.
I think we are close to done, but I haven't had a turn yet, so I don't know if we are out of the woods yet or not. To this day, I have not yet experienced the kind of flu the rest of my family seem to be suffering from. My experience with the flu is the 24-hour vomiting kind, and then it's over. This is totally different, where the symptoms seem to disappear and then come back and knock them down again. Just when I think it's safe to plan something fun, I have to cancel and stay home. We all have cabin fever and everyone is getting on everyone else's nerves.
It's possible this is just allergies, which would make sense because I am the only one in the family that doesn't suffer from any kind of allergy. And it is Cedar Fever Season when the Mountain Cedar/Ash Junipers release their pollen and make life miserable for most of the population here. I'd guess if it still doesn't go away in another week, it must be allergies, especially if I remain symptom free.
Whatever the case, the legacy of ear infections continued, but fortunately it wasn't me this time. As horrible as that sounds, I do not wish I could suffer Megan's pain in her place. I've done more than my time and, frankly, I'd rather have labor pains again (minus the baby) than suffer another ear infection. The silver lining was that Megan told me about her ear pain on a Thursday night, so I could get her in to the doctor on Friday rather than go to the ER on a weekend or holiday. I may not be a fan of our pediatrician, but one thing I can always count on is an uncontested prescription. While I would prefer homeopathic remedies for illnesses, I have not found any natural treatments that work on ear infections. And believe me, I've tried them all.
[Jan 5th: Ear infection #2: Isaac complained of ear pain last night, but since he didn't act like he was in excruciating pain, I didn't really believe him. They cry wolf so much... This morning, his ear was draining -- the tubes are doing their job. Since it costs a fortune to go to the ER, I am going to wait till tomorrow to call the doctor unless he starts having unbearable pain. This is the typical timing: the weekend.]
We were going to host the Vogler Christmas dinner at our house, but with all the sickness, we decided to postpone it and make it a New Years Eve lunch. But the sickness persisted and I canceled altogether. As far as I know, Dan and Jean had it at their house instead.
Tonight is New Years Eve and Rex and I had planned to celebrate it for the first time ever. Initially, Rex said I could go to the dance in Austin while he hosted his gaming friends at our house. But then he said he wanted to go with me, and despite my reservations about the babysitter (7 hours!), we decided to pay the $50 to go, plus another $40 for a babysitter. I'd been hemming and hawing about it ever since we paid, but Rex calmed my fears, insisting he and the kids would be healthy by then and they wouldn't be scared of the neighbors' fireworks anymore. But tonight when I gave them their medicine and took their temperatures, Megan's read 101 and Isaac's was 104.1. So we canceled the babysitter and I called the dance studio to see about a refund. (Since you couldn't buy tickets at the door, I think I will be able to sell them to someone else and get the money back.)
Through it all, I have been going out of my mind! The weather has been super cold and I am too much of a wimp to run in the cold. Besides, I have been known to get ear aches that progressed to infections just for being out in the cold too much, and running in it would definitely put me at risk. (Wow, that makes me sound so pathetic and fragile!) That's why I go on a running hiatus every winter. But after going 6-7 miles per day every day for several weeks, a sudden stop has been like quitting an addiction cold turkey. I have been incredibly antsy. Fortunately, after a week, there was a break in the weather and I went running on Christmas morning. Then the cold came back and I'm praying for another break.
Tomorrow is another day, and the weather is predicted to be above 50 degrees in the morning with a possibility of reaching 60. Still cold but not freezing, and after all this sitting around with kids alternating between languishing and assaulting, I am dying to get out of the house!
January 1st, 2013
Oh my goodness! Five miles never felt so good! Sure, it was wet and drizzly, cold and breezy. But dang, I felt alive again! If only it wasn't going to be 30 degrees tomorrow. Sigh. Better live it up today, even if it's wet.
No comments:
Post a Comment