This Too Shall Pass

At least that is what I keep telling myself. When Mike comes home from work now and politely asks me how I am doing (and even when he doesn’t ask) I morbidly inform him in an almost inaudible whisper, since my voice is nearly non-existent, “I think I’m dying.” Now obviously I know that is not true. I know there could be a million things worse with me but man, this SUCKS.

Sunday night I woke in the middle of the night with a horrendous sore throat. Monday morning it still hurt really bad but started to feel better once I got up and brushed my teeth, etc. In fact, I was feeling good enough to go to Emeth’s house and have a nice day with my other mommy friends and gorge on Red Veggie Curry and Sunbutter Brownies (yeah, we are living the hard stay-at-home-mommy life over here). Around 4 o’clock I started to crash. My throat started throbbing, my head started to ache, I knew I needed to get home. When I got home I decided to check my temperature and it was a little over 101. Ugh. I drank lots of water, took lots of vitamin C and probiotics and passed out on the couch. Mike was sweet and in a rare moment of thoughtful husbandness (he really should be getting a reward chart or something these days, he keeps shocking me) brought me a plate with fresh cut apples, cheese and an english muffin, without even being asked. Seriously, who put this man here and can I keep him? A call to my midwife helped reassure me that it was most likely viral and not strep throat. I decided to get some grapefruit seed extract to help my throat. Mike looked all over for it (look! another good deed!) and couldn’t find any of it in Pasco so I asked my friend Emeth if she would grab some for me at the Health Food store the next day. I took a spoon full of raw honey before bed and that helped a lot too.

I thought sleeping would go over well. Sleeping sucks. It gets worse at night. My throat was dying, my head killed and I still had the fever. In the morning I woke up coughing green slime. By around 10 o’clock, Tuesday morning, the fever went away and all though my throat was still sore and my voice was now gone, I was feeling a bit better. Better enough to do a bunch of laundry, take care of 3 kids and make a double batch of goulash (in our house that equates to spaghetti with macaroni noodles baked with cheese on top). By mid-afternoon Emeth was ever so kind to bring me the grapefruit seed extract. I put some drops in water and gargled it. It was very bitter. Around 5 o’clock I started to crash again. I noticed that I had some bad neck pain, the sore throat began to hurt again in full force. At least the fever was still gone. Mike was sweet enough to read Cami her bedtime story and he only made fun of me a little when I drooled all over the pillow when I fell asleep on the couch.

Tuesday night was not any better than Monday night. The symptoms get worse while I’m sleeping, as if being six months pregnant isn’t challenging enough on sleeping. This morning (Wednesday), I felt like I was hit by a truck when I got out of bed. My neck was killing me and I’ve lost most of my range of motion. My head aches, my sinuses are congested and I am constantly hacking up nasty green slime and of course my throat feels like I am swallowing shards of glass every time I swallow and my voice is gone. I’m glad my fever is gone or I’d be worrying myself over viral meningitis. I also have a bigger urge to cough all the time but it is a dry unproductive cough that makes my throat hurt even more. Mike was super sweet (again!) and made dinner tonight. Granted it was just waffles but he did it without being asked and he was kind enough to take Camden outside with him the moment he got home.

So, that is my unedited, woe is me post in all of its whiny glory. Apologies to those who actually read it all. LOL.

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Entering Day #4: The Fever That Would Not Go

 

I am doing my best to learn how to be a calm and stable, all knowing force when it comes to illness in my house but I confess that my nerves and confidence become a little racked when things don’t clear quickly. I have a hard time just sitting and waiting.

Camden started acting a bit whiny late morning on Saturday. She came with me on our drive to pick up raw milk from a farm not too far from our town. She mostly slept for the hour long drive there and back which was nice. We got home and she acted pretty normal while we unpacked all the milk. About an hour later, after we’d eaten lunch, she fell asleep on me in the office while I checked my email. I thought that was a little weird since she’d all ready napped in the car and she’d given up naps about 3-4 months ago. When she woke up from her nap she was a little beast. She was crying inconsolably and was pretty combative. We had dinner plans at a friends so I was worried she would not be awake enough to go. When I finally got her to calm down and was holding her I noticed she was really warm. I thought it might have been from all the crying but I decided to take her temperature anyway and it was 102.4. Drats. Dinner plans cancelled.

For the rest of the evening she was my velcro child. Every time I had to pee, she cried (and I’m pregnant, so that is often). Every time I filled my water glass, she cried. Every time I moved in a way that didn’t please her physical senses, she cried. And then she puked. I reassured myself this would be over in 24-48 hours.

Wrong. We are entering Day #4 of whiny, velcro-attached and sickly child. I feel blessed that we’ve been able to keep her hydrated with water and apple juice but up until today she had absolutely no interest in eating. Just fluids, which we’ve been pushing.

Her temperature fluctuates from 101-103 during the day and 102-104 at night. Neither of us have slept well. It is hard sleeping next to a portable heater. We’ve been watching late night movies to assist in sanity; Pride & Prejudice (twice) and A Midsummer’s Night Dream. Entertaining enough for me, boring enough that my sick princess will fall asleep (all though she’s been requesting to watch Pride & Prejudice again).

Today she woke up and I was hopeful. The first thing she asked for was to eat and she wanted a flour tortilla, which I obliged her to. She took 3 bites and told me she didn’t like it. It was worth a try. I took her temperature and it was only 100.5. I really thought we had it made. Until about 10am when it was back to 102. Later we tried a banana. Bad idea. She walks to me with half a piece of banana in her hand and a very familiar look on her face. I grab the puke bowl just in time. We did make some additional food progress later that night and she ate 2 small yogurts and I’ve managed to sneak some probiotics into her apple juice.

As each ticking hour passes so does my mommy poker face. The dread of worry starts to sink in and I forbid myself from googling what kind of complications could lurk behind a fever that lasts more than 4 days in a 3 year old. I try to pretend I am like my friend Lisa who could probably cure the diseases of the world with garlic and cold socks (ok, maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration). But at least I’ve learned to forgo using tylenol and ibuprofen for fevers.

And then, as I’m typing this little blog entry I hear something that has become very familiar over the last few days. “Waaaaaaaahhhhhh.” I rush into the master bedroom. Camden is crying. “What’s the matter?” She is holding her throat. “It hurrrrttttsssss”. I calm myself and collect my thoughts. What would super Lisa do? Oh yes, she would make some honey tea. So I warm up a mug of water (I nuked it – EGAD, don’t kill me Lisa!) and dissolved two spoon fulls of raw honey in the radiated water. By the time I get back to the bedroom Camden is all ready asleep. I coax her awake and get her to drink half of the mug of honey tea, which she likes but is too tired to drink all of.

I lay her back down and am called into the room half a dozen more times for re-arranged pillows, a request to go to Shelby’s house, a request for cartoons and a gripe about how both of her arms don’t fit into one of her pajama sleeves. I try to be calm and patient. I try to tell myself I should lay in that bed with her but heaven help me, four days lying in bed when you are not sick yourself quickly loses its novelty.

Needless to say, my mommy nerves are a little rattled. My confidence has waned and her new development of a sore throat on top of the fever, vomiting and diarrhea has left me needing reassurance. Off to the doctor we go tomorrow…

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