Hoping Next Week Is Healthier…
Posted by Arwen Mosher in Health on Friday, October 30, 2009 7:14 PM
We’ve had an interesting few days around our house.
I’ll give you the abridged version: I have a sinus infection. For a while we thought I had H1N1 flu and we were all going to get it. It now appears that we have not the flu but a cold, and it’s just the combination of my sinus infection and the cold that is making me extra miserable.
Doesn’t that sound like a fun week?
Being a mother has drastically changed the experience of being sick for me. I feel like there are two added stressors: the inability to rest and the fear that my kids will become ill too.
How fondly I remember the days of my childhood, when being sick meant getting to lie on the couch all day while my mom brought me everything I needed. Now I have two children of my own who depend on me, and their hygiene, sustenance, comfort, and entertainment needs don’t disappear just because I’m feeling under the weather. Even on the very rare day when I’m ill enough that my husband stays home to help, I’ve still got - at the bare minimum - the job of nursing the baby.
I’m not complaining. It’s a privilege to have my children, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to tend to their needs. But if there was some magical way to make them non-dependent on me just for a day or two at a time so I could have the chance to rest and recover when I’m ill, I would definitely sign up for that!
At the same time, there’s something even harder than being sick myself, and that is when my children are the ones who are aching. So far the most severe illness our children have contracted was the RSV they had last January, and watching the two of them suffer through that was horrible.
On Thursday morning I left my doctor’s office with a diagnosis of probable flu and before I’d even pulled out of the parking lot I was on hold with the pediatrician’s office. My main concern was the kids: what symptoms should we be watching them for, and what should we do if they did contract the flu?
Fortunately it appears that we don’t have the flu after all, since we’ve all got identical runny noses but no one except me has had the slightest hint of a fever. Needless to say, I’m incredibly relieved.
My flu-free kids have been sleeping fine, so when I fall into bed a few hours early tonight, I’ll be giving thanks for the chance to rest and for the fact that we’re all healthy (ish). Praise be to God for his mercies.
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