Thursday, October 22, 2015

Top Ten

These are the current top ten most commonly heard phrases from our sons, age 3 years 9 months:

10. Because I said so 
9.  I'm not your friend (only by AJ) 
8.  Can somebody wipe my bottom?
7.  I want a treat
6.  There's no monsters? (only by AJ)
5.  Watch this, Mom!
4.  I want to watch something on the TV (only by MJ)
3.  I want to buy that!
2.  I'm thirsty (or hungry)
1.  Why?


Wednesday, October 21, 2015

When It Rains. . .

it pours. Monday night MJ woke us up with a croupy cough and wheezing. And then AJ woke me up with ear pain (he'd had ear pain and fever earlier in the day as well). And MM woke up vomiting.

Because MM was so sick himself, it fell to me to take the boys to their pediatrician first thing in the morning on Tuesday. (Fortunately, the NP was able to examine them both even though only AJ had an appointment.) AJ was diagnosed with the expected ear infection, and we learned that the tube has fallen out of his right ear. MJ was diagnosed with croup and a sinus infection. Antibiotics were prescribed for both, as well as a dose of steroids for MJ.

I missed a group firm photo for a local magazine (as well as most of a day's work), but that's life. On the upside, all three of them are much improved today, and everyone is back to work/school.

The one saving grace was that I am about 95% recovered from my own illness. Had I still been sick also, it would have really been a rough day.


Monday, October 19, 2015

#MicroblogMondays 60: Steroids Edition

The day after my last post, when it was clear I wasn't getting better, I finally broke down and went to urgent care. (I hate going to the doctor when sick and will usually avoid doing so until/unless it becomes obvious I won't get better without some type of intervention.) I was diagnosed with bronchitis and prescribed a ZPak, steroids and a cough suppressant, and on Friday night, I had my first decent night's sleep all week, which contributed to my feeling much better on Saturday.

By yesterday, I was close to my normal energy level, and although I am still coughing, the episodes are fewer and farther between, shorter and less violent. That allowed me to make a significant dent in the virtual mountain of laundry that had accumulated over the past week when I was feeling particularly poorly. I washed and dried nine loads and folded and put away seven of those, with two more waiting for me to fold and put them away this evening.

I also cleaned the kitchen, including mopping the floor, and vacuumed, in addition to the usual weekend trip to the grocery store and keeping the boys entertained. (They had tee ball on Saturday, and on Sunday we took them to a nearby ranch's "pumpkin patch" -- really, just pumpkins stacked on and around bales of hay, but they don't know the difference and had fun.)

It felt good to be productive and start to get a handle on things at home, as well as feeling well enough to enjoy hanging out with my sons. Thank you, steroids, for the quick recovery.

Now to chip away at the work "to do" list. . . .

Thursday, October 15, 2015

I hate being sick

As of today, I have been coughing for two weeks straight. I caught a cold at the end of September and was just getting over it, with the cough still lingering, when I came down with another cold (this one more severe--worse sore throat and ear pain in addition to congestion) last Saturday.

My cough has been so bad the last three nights that I've hardly slept. I've tried everything that is available over-the-counter, and none of it has helped much. I'm frickin' exhausted.

(TMI: I also have urinary stress incontinence since having my sons, which makes for a lot of extra fun when I have a bad cough like this. Good times. . . .)

I'm really more annoyed by this than anything. Things had been going relatively smoothly for me. . . well, as smoothly as they ever seem to go in my life post-children. Since my hospitalization in early May, I'd only been sick once, with a GI virus in early July. I had recently started exercising regularly for the first time since my sons were born, and I'd managed to keep up the habit for three consecutive weeks before these colds hit me. Now I've had to put that on hold for no other reason than that I am absolutely worn out.

It isn't even cold and flu season yet! And our daytime highs here are still hovering around 100 degrees!

Anyway. I know that no one ever died from a cold, that there is nothing that can be done to shorten the duration of a cold, and that I'll be back to normal in another week or so. But right now, this just sucks. I just want to sleep and stop having to wear a diaper-like Po.ise pad all the time.

Friday, October 9, 2015

Playing catch-up

The title says it all: that seems to be the theme of my life these days. As I said in a comment on one of gwinne's posts recently, I fell behind on a variety of things when I was pregnant with my sons and have never been fully caught up since.

At the moment, I have a number of items that need to get done TODAY, both at home and at work. The work items have accumulated due to my secretary's getting fired this week (long story, but it had nothing to do with her job performance per se) and due to my being out of town all day yesterday for depositions. At home, our house is in its usual end-of-week state of chaos -- toys and various other detritus strewn about, low on essential grocery items, floors in need of vacuuming/sweeping/mopping -- plus we are completely out of dog food as of this morning, and I still need to buy snacks for the eight children on our tee ball team before tomorrow morning's game. Whew!

Meanwhile I still have a lingering cough from the cold I had last week, we have plans to (belatedly) celebrate MM's birthday Saturday night (it was actually Wednesday), my mom has finally arrived in the metro area and is coming over Saturday, we have the boys' second tee ball game Saturday morning and we hope to visit the pumpkin patch Sunday.

And on that note, I must end, as another urgent matter has just been dropped on my desk. Happy Friday