This is Sick*

This has been my view for the last few days. Notice the sofa-level angle on the picture? Yeah. I've been laid low by this bizarre virus that (while allegedly not the flu) lasts for days.

Honestly, if I hadn't seen my son go through it first, I wouldn't have believed it. But this bug sucked the energy right out of a nine-year-old boy.

Honestly, if the pediatrician hadn't told me half the town has it and it lasts 10-12 days, I wouldn't have believed.

And, honestly, I still might not have believed it if the all-around tough guy--also a great guy!--who trims our palms hadn't had to reschedule for a week later because *he* had it.

I felt a little bleh all weekend, so I then felt super proud of myself for making it through my PiYo class Monday morning. The downhill slide began when I picked up my phone after class and saw eight missed calls. Eight?!?! Turns out we'd sent Little A. back to school too soon and he needed to come home. No problem. I picked him up and got him settled.

The rest of the week passed in a blur of already scheduled home repair and/or maintenance visits and the subsequent follow-ups (see the list on the legal pad there?), attempts to remember when I last took Advil, and making really lame dinners for the kids. Oh--I also had to set an alarm on my phone to remember to give Little A. his antibiotics twice a day because it turns out he had an ear infection, too.

He's not a complainer and, usually, neither am I. But it's funny how you learn things about yourself when you have kids exactly like you, warts and all.

It's flippin' hard to take care of him! I never have any idea how sick  he is unless I catch one of his tells. His teacher sent him home because, after he was a total jerk to her about some instructions that he couldn't hear because EAR INFECTION, she caught one of his tells. He put his head down on his desk. I'm so glad she spotted that for what it was--a totally out of character moment of overwhelming misery--and called me.

Even then he argued with me later. "I ALWAYS put my head on my desk." Um, yeah, son? I'm not in class with you all day but I'm willing to bet that's a big negative, Ghost Rider.

So if I'd like him to be more aware of his symptoms and more open with the people around him, I guess I'd better teach by example. I'll try to do better at assessing my condition and sharing it with the people who have to deal with me. Here goes.

I've been sick, so sick that the dog barking gives me an adrenaline shot equivalent to... I dunno what. A triple espresso?  But it takes me roughly a half hour to recover and, with at least five companies scheduled to work on the house, plus one guy from a fairly major investment firm going door-to-door "not selling anything, just letting me know he's opened an office nearby" (?!?!?) this week, the dog has barked. A lot.

Oh, yeah--did I mention that Little A. spent his sick days surprising the dog with a remote control helicopter?

I've been so sick that getting up to get water makes my heart race. Notice I don't say "getting up to get hot tea with honey"--because that's too darn hard to fix when I'm this sick.

I've tried reading to pass time, but I have to stop when the story gets to action scenes because it's just too exhausting. If you know my reading habits, this is truly alarming.

Also typos! I'm so sick I'm not even getting close enough for Autosuggest to guess. I can't tell how many corrections I've made to this post. And I'm feeling better today!

*Here's where you find out this whole post has been a ploy to see if I can put together complete sentences and catch my typos. If I succeed, it's back to work for me!

Although, with no one scheduled to be at the house this afternoon, I may nap later...

Wishing you health and peace, my friends.