I did say I was feeling better, didn't I? Well shortly after going to bed last night, the hack attacks began, and every gut-wrenching cough feels like a cheese grater is being pressed through my throat. I don't want to get too graphic here but things reached a point this morning where my wife insisted I seek medical attention. Wisely. And the diagnosis is the same as her. Bronchitis.
So here's the scenario: She's hacking and coughing up her lungs, which just happens to be exacerbating a back and neck related injury, so just the act of coughing for her is creating pain on numerous other fronts. She's been told to get rest for 7 days. And now so have I. The kids were the first sick and have not gotten sick again, but you can't imagine how difficult it is to have two deathly ill parents trapped on a rainy weekend in the house with kids that need lots of attention and things to do with all their energy. Keeping them at a distance is difficult but mandatory so they're spared getting Bronchitis as well. Therefore, we've resorted to taking shifts where one sleeps for a few hours while the other lies prone on the couch, retching and expelling infectious phlegm every three minutes while reassuring the kids that Mommy and Daddy will be OK, we can't hug them right now, and oh, here's some more Curious George to watch.
We really needed help today and yesterday, but we actually have nobody we can call on. It's dramatic but it's true. We have their grandmother but it's far to much to ask or expect that she'd take them on for a full day while we got rest; they're too much to handle, and they try her patience as it is. It's not something I'd ask or expect. I'd jump on our brother-sister in law taking them for the day but they live all the way up in Roseville; not quite conducive to a last minute 'we need help' call. There's a neighbor down the street that'd likely take them on but they have a 5 year old as well, and with our kids having just been sick and being exposed to us, anybody we had help would be at threat of being exposed and contaminated themselves. So we've had to wing it and will continue to have to do so through the course of the coming days.
We're Quarantined.
I honestly can't say when I remember being this miserable and in this much pain. This is the kind of illness that, as you sit up from lying back on the couch, you find yourself unable to go any further. Walking from one point in the house to another requires stopping and resting along the way. The low grade fever is just enough to make everything seems fuzzy and surreal. My body aches in ways I've never imagined. My throat is raw and coarse. My voice is completely gone... I had to 'whisper' a bedtime story to the kids because I can't talk. I literally took about an hour tonight to get the energy to get up and get something to eat and soothe my throat. And remember, it's not like I can just ask my spouse for help or visa versa.... we're both in the same boat.
It's humbling to be sick like this. I makes me appreciate the energy, drive, mental focus and heath I usually have. It makes me empathize for the people in the world that suffer chronic illnesses and have to try and make the best of each day under circumstances that make me curl up in the fetal position and whimper to myself.
Fortunately I'm on medication now, so hopefully this will be all behind me in a few days. And the codeine laced cough suppressant may allow me to get a decent night's sleep for the first time in days.
