What I learned from Strep Throat

You know there's always going to be little things that you take for granted in life... things that you don't think about very much, you just DO or just HAVE... but what if you were to have a LOT of those little things taken away from you all at once? Would you be just as oblivious? Would you continue to take them for granted if you could get them back?

Of all the things in the world that I could've woken up with on Monday, of all the things I've had in the past, sure enough, something new this time! Yay me... Strep Throat. Man... this sucks.

Monday:
Not too bad, feeling sorta icky and a really sore throat... but it'll probably develop into something like a cold later... bah... nothing new.

OMG... the evening I was getting chills... there was no way to warm up or stop shivering... holy crap...

Tuesday:
Death walks... or at least that's how I looked/felt... my throat was so sore that I couldn't even swallow liquid. Horrible. The only way to describe. Okay, this is no longer looking like a cold or flu, this is something else. I had to get kids picked up early from the day home and go to the walk in clinic.

I had fever, chills, sore throat aches everywhere... but especially at the back of my head and around under my chin.

Go to the walk in clinic and see a doctor... she took a minute to try and understand my mumbling and then told me to open wide and say 'aahhh'... and she then said (I quote), "Oh my holy goodness that's nasty. That's the worst case I've seen in a LONG time!"

Uh. Thanks? Apparently when I do things I don't just do it half way... gotta do it with a BANG!

So she gave me the prescription, along with a numbing throat rinse that was 'supposed' to help me take the pills. I got some more halls and some hand sanitizer and went home.

Wednesday:
Still not sleeping. Haven't eaten since Monday... so so sooo tired. Thankfully my boys are mostly self-entertaining. They were able to play with each other almost all day by themselves and leave me on the couch to suffer. Sylvain had taken the day off to go to set up some computers at another building, but he stayed home as much of the morning as he could to help out.

Around 5pm I hit my 'wall'. No sleep, no food, very little liquid and feeling all around crappy... I yelled at my boys. Xavier was on his 3 trillionth question of the hour, Jérôme was screaming for whatever reason and trying to get away from me while I was putting him in his high chair, Sylvain was still out setting up computers and me? Well. I was finished.

I screamed. Nothing intelligible, just AARRGGHH!!

The questions stopped.
The kicking & crying stopped.
The sore throat was very sore now.

I walked away. Just for a minute. But I walked away.

I went back and started again. Apologized and just gave them their food.

That night Sylvain and I decided that I should take a sleeping pill to see if that helped. So I did. Apparently, when Sylvain came to bed he said I sounded like a very loud freight train struggling to breath. And it didn't matter what he did, I wasn't stopping. He physically grabbed my head and turned it. He kept trying to roll me over, and finally when I DID roll over it was towards him and in his ear. He laughed and went downstairs to sleep.

Thursday:
Sleep is good. Fever and chills are gone. Throat is still sore, but slowly getting better.

I'm on the mend.


So. What did this absolutely horrible experience teach me? A few things, like what I take for granted, what I didn't realize about myself and what Papa is good for (besides mowing the lawn).

• Swallowing in general, but being able to drink water. Just plain water.
• Food. Eating is pretty much impossible with a throat that sore.
• Kisses, whether stolen or given away, from my boys.
• Making ouchies feel better.
• Cuddles and snuggles before bed, or whenever for that matter.
• Being jumped on, slammed into and climed on by two of the three boys. Yea. I miss it.
• Sharing food and drinks with both boys.
• Sleep. Oh dear lord. Sleep is not happening with a sore throat. You don't realize how much you swallow without thinking about it.
• Talking. Yes, yes. There are the jokes. But just to say hello. Or anything like that.
• Reading bedtime books to the boys.
• Singing to them before bed.
• Yawning. Oh yea. It hurt to yawn.

I took all of that for granted. It was just stuff that came so naturally, it was daily, it was stuff I didn't have to think about. But when your two year old stubs his toe and then grabs your knees and looks up to you for a kiss to make it better... and you just can't... I... the words aren't there...

What I learned about ME? HA!

The house stops when I'm sick. That's it. That's all. No cooking (well, almost none). No cleaning. No grocery shopping. No routine. No nothin'.... but I'm sure ALL mom's say that.

Then there's Sylvain... Papa... I learned some stuff about him too. Now. He's not the best for taking care of me when I'm sick. Sometimes I get the feeling that he's trying to make me feel guilty for needing his help, but I'm sure he'd argue otherwise. But here's what I discovered.

• Putting both boys to bed at the same time? HA! Makes it look easy.
• Can smile and jump right into a wrestling match with the boys no matter what time of day or how tired he is.
• Will lay on the floor and be a trampoline just so the boys will leave me be.
• Stays in bed with a freight train because he's concerned that breathing is so laboured. So after being awake for half the night and is convinced I'll be alright... THEN he goes downstairs to the spare room.
• Will go to his meetings late just to make sure the boys are going to let me get some rest. But then brings back lunch because he's already missed the morning, what's another half hour.
• Jérôme wants cuddles and has finally decided that Papa can cuddle just as well if not better, than Maman does.

Life always throws something at you that you just can't catch. But if you can learn from NOT catching it, well, you'll appreciate the game a WHOLE lot more.