If you've ever tried to console a sick toddler and they sneeze or cough in your face...you know what's coming next. The inevitable spread of illness throughout the whole family. This winter has been harsh on us, but luckily seems to have spared our out of town (or really out of country!) visitors. The first week that Sarah and Louise arrived in mid-December, Emma came down with croup and I was still fighting off a bad cough myself. I thought, great, this highly contagious bug is going to get our guests sick while they are supposed to be enjoying their holiday. However, they were spared! :) And by the end of December, after Emma and I both were put on antibiotics, we were all finally better.
Thank goodness, because we then took a 10-day road trip (again, to be written about soon I promise!). That trip would have been miserable if any of us, especially the kids, were sick. Several days of hopping around different hotels and being crammed into the car for long drives is not something you want to endure while being sick. Alas, we were all spared during that time.
Then right after we got home, at the beginning of our last week with our guests, Evan got sick. By the day that Sarah and Louise left (a week ago today), Evan was slowly recovering, but Emma and I both started to get early symptoms. I'm happy to say that Evan recovered pretty easily on his own and never got too bad. But poor Emma and myself are another story. This "bad cold" as the doctor described it (it is not the flu) has made me more congested than I ever remember being before in my life! I always thought our bodies kept one nostril unclogged somehow to allow us to still breath, but nope, I just had been lucky I guess. The congestion I have with this cold has me plugged up on both sides of my nose since this past Monday night!
After calling the doctor Tuesday and finding out there isn't anything they can do for us at that early stage of the cold, Emma and I suffered through a week of blocked nasal passages and "hack up a lung" coughs. The cough with this thing is really brutal. I mean it gags us and makes us feel like we're on the verge of throwing up. That very cough woke Emma up a lot overnight throughout the week, while I slept fairly well doped up by all the cold medicines that help you sleep. Yet, poor Emma is too young to be allowed to medicate like that.
Anyway, by yesterday we were still in bad shape, and Emma had actually gotten worse given she wasn't sleeping well at all. Not from the cough, but just waking up whimpering so I started to suspect an ear infection. The doctor yesterday confirmed that she did have an ear infection (both ears, but her right was worse) and a likely sinus infection as well. For me, I was diagnosed with another sinus infection. Therefore, just like last month, we are both on antibiotics now for the next week or so. I was also given a steriod nasal spray to help open my nasal passages up, which may be the reason I can almost breath through my nose today. However, I still have quite a bit of congestion (more one-sided at least today) and my ears are still feeling blocked up as well.
On top of that, I cannot taste anything! Nor can I smell, and like I learned from doing my 5th grade science fair project, smell affects your ability to taste. So, until my smelling senses are redeemed I will continue to not be able to enjoy any of the yummy things I may eat. In fact, I really think I need to watch what I eat more now because what's the point of putting something that may be high in calories or fat or what not in my mouth if I cannot taste it!? I'm not one to eat a super strict diet, as I like to indulge here and there, but really, if I can't taste it, why bother? Case in point: we ordered pizza last night (Friday night treat night baby!) and I was dipping my crust in the very naughty garlic "butter" dipping sauce. After I finished my first crust like that I realized, why was I bothering putting that probably not-very-good-for-me stuff in my mouth if I couldn't at least taste the garlicy yumminess that it usually provides? So, now I'm not even bothering eating chocolate or other treats, because it really is a waste and just giving me unneeded calories for no benefit whatsoever. (sigh) I long for the day that I can taste again though, but I guess until then I'll be "on a diet". lol.
Back to my story...the good news is that Emma has now started sleeping really good again! She slept all the way through the night last night without a peep and is taking good naps again too. So I think the antibiotics are already starting to help her out! We'll see how much longer it takes for my congestion and coughing fits to go away, but hopefully by Monday since I absolutely have to get back to work!
Speaking of work, I ended up staying home all week and working from home. I didn't really feel run down from this bug (all the symptoms were just from the neck up), so I wanted to keep on top of my work without going into the office and contaminating everyone. Luckily I can work from anywhere as long as I have my laptop and internet. So...that's where this story gets even more interesting. On Wednesday morning, while I was trying to start another work from home day, my laptop crashed. Just in the white flash of the screen it went out of commission, and seemed at the time that it was not coming back.It just kept rebooting itself in a crazy cycle until I finally hard powered it down and called our system administration team at work. However, they were unwilling to let me try to diagnose the problem over the phone so I had to get it to them at the office. Luckily, a co-worker/friend/neighbor was kind enough to come get it from me, take it to work, bring me a spare "loaner" laptop that work had prepared for me, and then also bring my fixed laptop back to me (3 trips to help me out...much gratitude Luna!). So, in the midst of all of this, I worked two days on John's laptop, then the next day on the loaner laptop, and now I have mine back from the dead. At least my files I had been working on were recovered since it was work to prepare me for a big all-day meeting I have Monday.
Which brings me full circle back to why I have to get into the office Monday. While I may not be 100%, I hope I won't have the stuffy, nose-whistling voice that I've had this past week, and I certainly hope I won't have to break down in a gag-myself hackathon cough in the middle of my presentation. Modern medicine don't fail me now....I can't be out of commission any longer!
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