The next day after the Metz Christmas market Brian took our guests to the airport and we went to Sunday morning Mass without him. He was going to the 12:30pm Mass at a different church when he got back. I really started feeling even worse that day, but we had commitments that, in my mind, couldn't be cancelled. I had a completely neglected and fast approaching Thanksgiving to plan and a friend that was coming to spend the night that night so that I could take him to the doctor the next day since his wife had to be out of town. I had to turn over the guest room and make a meal plan for Thanksgiving, and I felt really badly.
By the next day, my throat felt like it was on fire all the time and I could barely swallow without a tremendous amount of pain and now I had a fever. I finally decided that I needed to go to the doctor because I had caught Drew's strep throat. I took my friend to the doctor and then called to make an appointment. It had to be the next day, but I talked myself into one more awful day and night before getting antibiotics and feeling better. It got to the point before my appointment that I could literally only whisper. That makes my job as a mom of six very difficult since no one could ever hear me whispering over the noise of the house.
At the doctor the next morning, the PA looked in my throat and said it didn't look that red, and he thought it probably wasn't strep. I'd heard that before with Drew so I did not take that to be sufficient evidence. He mentioned that I had sores on the back of my throat though that were most likely associated with a virus. He ordered a strep test anyway, a quick five minute one and a longer term one.
A nurse did the swab and the test was negative. I burst into tears. All hope was lost. I was in so much pain and had stopped eating anything other than milkshakes and tea. I could not see pulling it together before Thanksgiving without antibiotics. How was I going to function? The kids still were supposed to be doing schoolwork up until Thanksgiving. We'd had plans to go climbing with our homeschool group on Wednesday. How could I disappoint the kids, and yet how could I carry on teaching and taking people to events when I was so very sick? I told a friend of mine that asked if I needed prayer for anything and she said that when we gets sick their world stops and she cuddles kids on the couch watching movies. The older kids do all the necessary work for her and bring her water, etc. Plus, they do not go anywhere. If she wouldn't take a sick kid out, she doesn't take herself out. Moreover, she said that she feels it is an important lesson to teach the children that sometimes we have to stay home from what we really wanted to do in order to take care of someone who is sick.
Sadly, I never had thought of it that way. When Brian got home, I went to bed and he took care of the kids for me. The next day I barely got out of bed. I assigned the older kids dishes to make for Thanksgiving and gave them the recipes to do so. Then they all went out on the trampoline where I could even see them from my bedroom window and jumped for hours all together and with no fighting. It couldn't have gone better, and it even seemed that I was feeling slightly better, although I still couldn't eat solid food or talk about a whisper. But the rest had done some good.
At 4pm, Hannah needed my phone for the recipe she was in charge of, and she set it right in the one single spot in all of our house that gets a phone signal. This was Divine Providence because just then my nurse called and said the long term strep had turned up positive already. She wanted to know if I could come up right then to the clinic for an antibiotic shot. It is 40 minutes away from our house because of the closed road and long detour, but I said yes and practically flew into the van leaving the girls to babysit.
It was Wednesday before Thanksgiving and everything was closing down for the holiday there when I arrived. Again I was so thankful that they got a hold of me and that I was going to feel better soon, but I was a little irritated that my PA wouldn't believe me. I knew this was not just some sores, and I haven't had an antibiotic in 13 years since I had mastitis. Why must the pendulum swing so far in the other direction just because some doctors over-prescribed antibiotics for a time? Balance, People! Although, I guess I can't blame him because he doesn't know me well and has not been my Primary Care PA for very long at all.
I ended up with a shot in the butt (I was sore for a week there!) and a dose of steroid to help reduce the pain quickly. I felt so much better by bedtime! That's my story about how I learned to rest when I am sick. Maybe I'll even remember this lesson next time. Maybe.
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