Under the Weather

Several years ago, I often said, carelessly, "I never get sick!".  Then I would breezily go about my day, tending to my sick children and husband, with nary a concern of catching any of their germs.  I would say to the children blithely, as I stroked their fevered brows, kissed their warm cheeks and cleaned up their piles of kleenexes, "I'm not afraid of your germs!".

And I wasn't.  I was almost never sick.  Until the last couple of years, which seem to directly correlate with my going back to teaching.  Yep!  My middle-aged body was up to the task of handling a houseful of sick children, but apparently not a class full of sniffly preschoolers.

Last week, my youngest daughter was sick all week, and on Friday morning, I succumbed as well.  I debated and debated calling into work, but then realized the inevitable.  I was sick and there was no way I could go to work.  I didn't allow myself any pain meds for several hours, apparently because I felt guilty about missing work and thought I should suffer because of it?  I'm not sure what was going on in my foggy brain, but my head ached for hours before I finally took some Tylenol.

My daughter and I cuddled under the blankets on the couch.  I was shivering and listening to the TV, when I heard a Goldie and Bear episode about learning how to ride a bike.  The dad was teaching the child (or bear or something, I don't know, I wasn't watching it, I was shivering under my blanket), and the dad let go of the child as she learned how to ride the bike.  Cue the waterworks.  Turns out I am an emotional mess when I'm sick, and the sweet little coming-of-age episode threw me over the edge.  Oh my heart!  Children growing up!  Children becoming independent!  It was all too much for my feverish soul to bear.  A little bit later, after a nap, I woke up to feel my daughter giving me a back rub and telling me she loved me; I guess she knew mommy was a little off emotionally.

We're both better now (she on nebulizer meds and me on an antibiotic), but we both have killer coughs still.  No concern about spreading any illness to anyone else, however, as we are inside for a three day stretch due to the lowest temps our area has ever seen.

So today (and yesterday and tomorrow) will be made up of baking, cleaning, games and more cuddling on the couch.  Let's just skip all sentimental movies, though, just in case.