Did you notice that when I was thankful I didn’t include my health? In the grand scheme of things I am thankful for my health. Just not this week. This last week I am extremely unthankful for what I’ve been going through. In fact, I’m downright mad about it.
- There was the migraine on Monday. It ranks up there in the top five worst of my life. I went home, popped a migraine med and {tried to} slept the day away. Oh, and Maximus was home sick with pink eye. So he was causing a ruckus in the living room while I tried to sleep in the bedroom. I was thankful for my husband. And a kid who uses sick days to par-tay.
- Then there was the migraine on Tuesday, on the other side of my head. That one was fun because it snuck up on me right around lunch. I had 15 minutes to get lunch and couldn’t find a lineless fast food joint in town. So I grabbed gold-fish, potato buckets, and caffeine. I hoped and prayed that it would yield off the headache. But, given that my afternoon was spent watching 3D virtual reality. Yah, that didn’t work. By the time I got home I was crawling to the couch and applying lots of pressure to my head. As my not-really-sick kid bounced around the living room on his second day of “sick” leave. I took a few Excedrin and dreamt of the girl in the ponytail taking my pain away. I forged through and went to a movie. I piled so much water and pop into my system before the movie started that I wondered if I’d make it through or if I’d spend all my time in the bathroom. I also ingested a lot of sugar. But, it worked! I was thankful for medication that curbed the beast.
- Then Wednesday I decided to tackle this on my own. I woke up declaring Wednesday a migraine free day on Twitter. It worked for two hours. Then the impending throat doom hit. You know the one. Where it hurts to swallow and you have a golf ball stuck in your throat. Yah, I had back-to-back-to-back meetings that afternoon so at work I was. I wasn’t at 100%, but I was there nonetheless. I went home and spent the rest of the evening moaning on the couch. I think it was a lot of, “why do I deserve this?” “what did I do wrong?” “how horrible was I in my former life?” I was thankful that I didn’t have to go to work the next day.
- On Thursday I woke up feeling like a train had hit my face. The pressure! The sinus insanity! The nose blowing! But, the throat ball was gone. And I semi-tasted my food. And I had an appetite. I was thankful that my husband was there to take care of Maximus. I went home and took some more cold medicine and went to bed.
- On Friday I slept in (with my head propped up at an awkward angle) and moved to the couch to watch the destroyer (aka toddler) wreck havoc on my house. I stayed on top of the cold medicine and took an afternoon nap. None of which seemed to help much. My garbage still looked like someone had destroyed a small tissue tree. Bryan left me alone with the menace (after feeding and bathing him) and I spent the evening watching movies on tv. I bit the bullet and took cough syrup (I HATE cough syrup) because the loveliness had moved into my throat again. For the first time in my life, I took cough syrup without my husband chasing me around the house. AND, I had the grand idea to take it like a shot of alcohol. I think it was the 10% alcohol listed on the label. I threw that thing back like I’ve never done before. I still got goosebumps and shivered, but I took the whole thing! I know, I’m on to something here. Then I went to bed for 10 hours. I was thankful for something to knock me out!
- Saturday was more of the same. It took me about two hours of awake time to feel like my body parts were rubber. When the meds finally wore off I decided to try to tackle whatever remaining time I had left of the break. I did some things around the house, did a craft or two, took a shower (!), and took a nap. I was thankful that I appeared to be at the end of The Sickness, just in time to go back to work.
- Sunday I woke up feeling the best I had in days. That still includes lots of tissues and coughing, but I was making progress. Lymph nodes were still swollen, but I felt like I could make something out of my day. I did amazing things like, tried to “run” the cold out on the treadmill (wasn’t all that bad), wrote a blog post, put up Christmas decorations (!), and played with my child. I considered this to be the biggest success of the week! And I pretended not to hear my kid sneeze…. I was thankful that I was operating at a 90% level without meds. And then I got a headache after supper. And then I forgot about taking some night-time meds. So, I took daytime meds and went to bed hoping and praying for the best.
- Then it was Monday again and I was wishing it was Sunday so I could sleep it off a little more. I powered through and put in a whole day of work. I used a lot of tissues and spent a lot of time scaring people away with my cough. But, I know I’m rounding that corner. I WILL be better the next time a Monday comes around. I am thankful that I’ve put the worst of it behind me. And hopefully I won’t need to experience this for a loooong time.
So, I may not have been thankful for my health during the past week, but I was thankful for a lot of other things. I am thankful that a few migraines and head cold are the most of my health worries. I am thankful that pink eye and an ear infection are the worst of my recent toddler worries. And I’m thankful that my husband no longer has a stomach flu. In the grand scheme of things I am really thankful that my family appears to be healthy heading into the month of December. And I hope to wait a very long time before I experience another November!
