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Tuesday, April 21, 2009

SICK

Shel Silverstein has a wonderful poem entitled SICK. In the poem little Peggy Ann McKay explains why she cannot go to school today because of all of her ailments. She starts with:

I have the measles and the mumps,
A gash, a rash, and purple bumps.
My mouth is wet, my throat is dry.
I'm going blind in my right eye.
My tonsils are as big as rocks...

By the end of the poem she realizes it is Saturday and signs off with "good-bye, I'm going out to play."

For the past two days, I have felt much like the sick Peggy Ann McKay. And, unfortunately, even if it were Saturday I would not being going out to play. There are a lot of germs going around.

I was worried towards the end of last week that the baby was getting sick. She was so grumpy and was not sleeping well. And her nose was running. She'd wake up with snot all over herself and her sheets. Turns out it was her third and fourth teeth cutting through her gums. The fourth is nearly all the way out and she is doing much better. But Friday and Saturday nights were KILLER. She'd easily fall asleep in my arms; was even snoring. But as soon as her elevation changed as I was putting her in the crib she would throw a fit. We spent several hours sleeping together - me propped up against pillows or on a couch and her resting in my arms head held high. At one point I thought about going to sleep on a Lazy-boy, but she FINALLY fell asleep on her own.

Sunday night was another hard one. She slept soundly until 2:30am, but was then up again, this time unable to nurse herself back to sleep because of all the snot. We spent some quality time together in the wee hours of the morning. Love her to death, but when you have to get up at 5:30 and the baby is still awake at 3:45 things are not so pretty.

I was sitting in the computer lab on Monday afternoon frantically trying to finish a homework assignment when I felt the chills set in. During my 1-3pm class, I got THE headache, I started shaking, and my tummy was upset. I snuck out of class and bought some coke thinking the caffeine would help my headache and the coke would calm my tummy. Neither worked. When I got home, my temperature was nearly 103. I was achy and miserable. D could not get home soon enough.

I took today off and took the baby to the nanny. I slept. HARD. I think the lack of sleep over the weekend completely did me in. I'm feeling better, but still have a mild fever. I don't remember 100 degree fevers feeling this bad when I was in high school or college. As we get older do fevers make us feel worse?

Anyways, I should be grateful that I'm sick and not the baby. And I should be grateful that our nanny is wonderful and even told me if I needed to pick the baby up late this evening she would totally understand. I was there on time, but grateful for the helpful offer. I'm on the fence about whether or not I should trek up to B-more tomorrow for classes. I'm thinking maybe going up for just the morning and then coming home to sleep. HARD.

On top of all of the sickness, I have had THREE bloody noses today. GUSHERS. I don't even want to guess the number of kleenexs I went through today. My last one was terrible and lasted much longer than the others. All of the clots from the previous bloody events came out, which was repulsive - especially since my tummy is a little on the rocks. To prevent another bloody nose, I've given up blowing my nose for the next 24 hours. I'm also running a humidifier and taking SUPER hot showers without the fan on.

Here's to some warmer weather and better health!



2 comments:

Sarah said...

I hear ya, sister.

The combination of no sleep and being sick, particularly with a fever, is a big, stressful BLEH. I think fevers are worse when we're older.

GOOD FOR YOU for dropping K off at the nanny! I used to feel so guilty about that, but then I realized I'm a better mama if I give myself a little TLC which helps keep me sane(r).

Hope you feel better soon!

Anonymous said...

Sounds like you're working yourself pretty hard. It's that time of the semester--when the constant running can really affect health...don't worry, it will be over soon. And be sure to get lots of sleep.

And this winter weather just will not let up! It's like we're still living in Meadville (well, maybe not that bad).

Jill