In the last 48 hours, I've stayed home with a sick son, working remote and allowing my wife to go to physical therapy due to back problems. I've had to contend with a very important project's schedule slipping, and I've had to return home early in order to cover for my wife's time away, spent getting an MRI. I've also had our daughter climb into our bed at 2AM, complaining about being unable to sleep with her brother's snoring, then his subsequent waking and vomiting at 3.15AM and all that comes along with it. I've had to shift things in order to drop my daughter at school while my wife stayed with my son the second day, returning to pick her up and drop her back at home at lunchtime, while even more project schedule chaos continued at the office. I've had to leave early the 2nd day in a row in order to meet my wife at the doctor's when my son's temperature hit 104.5, being told that he'll likely be sick for another 5 days. Oh, and to top it off my wife's MRI showed herniated discs, spurs and other issues in C2-3 through C6-7.
By the way, while on the topic... I myself, I love MRI's. Seriously. I find them the most calming and relaxing experience I can have without involving chemical stimulates. They're like meditation capsules, where the confined space, restricted movement, and rhythmic noises prevent me from moving or thinking. They calm my mind, and that's not an easy task to accomplish. I'd like to have one at home in which I could refresh myself nightly.
Also, while there's something very warm and enduring about having your child sleeping beside you, and it's something I do sincerely appreciate, if not relish, it has its drawbacks. There's something annoying and restrictive about them being so close that you can't roll over, finding yourself smacked in the face as they toss about, and eventually realizing that you've shuffled yourself as far as humanly possible towards the edge, extending over and poised to careen off the side at the next unexpected impact of their foot on your cheekbone. They can seriously disrupt sleep.
I won't portray my life as being complete and utter chaos, as it's really quite far from that, but there are occasions, and there are entire days, in which the fun just does not stop.
I've been, throughout the days, from 7am to 1am daily, trying to mentally bounce between high priority email threads, phone calls, meetings, coordinating time to contend with the home-front illness, researching toddler fevers and spinal herniations, and everywhere in between.
On the herniated disc topic: I'll be spending time looking into opinions and options with her for some time. I've had a fusion of my own at C2-3, and I've been down this road. It's a good topic for a longer post, but suffice to say that I can relate and empathize with what my wife's going through. For once. For a change. Finally. And we're both dumbfounded and don't know quite what to do with that.