It's been quite a week. Nearly two weeks ago Tinker had a cold. She felt terrible on Saturday and Sunday but rallied for school on Monday. She had a lingering cough and every time we'd be having one of our mother-daughter bonding moments, she coughed into my mouth. Yes, literally, into my mouth. Wednesday night I went to bed at 8:30. Thursday morning I woke up and said something I had not said to Dear Hubby in 16-1/2 years (so, ever!): "I can't get up with the kids."
I tried, truly I did. I stood up, walked the 10 feet to the bathroom, staggered back to my bed and stayed there until 12:30, eventually with the kids all around me. Today, 8 days later, I woke for the first time without a splitting headache. It's 8:00 and I haven't coughed yet either. I think I've finally turned the corner. (You'll understand the significance of this when you read the rest.)
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Grandma had a knee replacement a couple weeks back, so Daddy spent last weekend helping out over there. Sunshine had a practice and 2 games in the freezing wind so I felt pretty darn bad by the time I got the little ones home and abed for the night. Both the big girls were away for the night so I fell into bed early.
Sunday I felt better though by then I had no voice. Good thing I was better, too, as it was "cooking day" at church. I took it easy until time to cook so I managed okay. We made 160 hamburgers and fruit salad. Every bite was eaten.
The Captain, however, picked up a new bug at school last week and by Sunday night, was clearly sick. Tink was running a fever too and had red eyes. I told both kids, "No school tomorrow." The Captain woke up very early Monday morning saying what sounded like, "I frow up in my hand."
In my pre-dawn mama wisdom, the best I could come up with was, "Go wash your hands and I'll meet you in the living room." He arrived in the living room with a towel to lie on and a blanket to cover up with . I turned on PBS and in minutes he was snoozing. Daddy was working from home so I didn't feel too guilty having coffee with my Comadre. An hour into our gab fest, I got a text: "The Captain threw up all over himself and the bean bag chair." Home I went.
He slept all day and all night Monday, weak as a kitten. When I told him to get ready for bed, he said,
"But my bed has frow-up in it." Oh, gross. 12 hours had not improved the situation. [Note to self: When a child mentions vomit, you should be do a little investigation.] I changed the bed, cleaned the carpet, and tucked both boys in. He woke up as bad off as he went to bed and spent another day dozing, sipping soda and eating jello.
Around 3:00 PM on Tuesday he finally rallied, but I made a doctor's appointment anyway. Meanwhile Tinker seemed fine and went to school on Tuesday. On Wednesday morning, Tink went to school again but The Captain headed to the doctors. I was concerned about his cough and right to be so . . . he had serious chest congestion. 4 breathing treatments and a day later, he was finally ready to go back to school with the admonition to "stay indoors until the weekend" in case allergies were exacerbating his symptoms.
I dropped him off at home with Sunshine and hurried into Austin to relieve Pepper who was sitting with Dear Hubby during his mylogram. You will recall that months ago he had a bad landing after sky diving and has suffered some loss of use in his thumb as a result. Pepper headed home to help with the Littles and I stayed with Daddy.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Tink came home from school on Wednesday complaining of a sore "neck" which I interpreted to mean "sore throat." I instructed Sunshine via text to give her some Tylenol and we got home an hour or so later. Reinforced by drugs she seemed pretty fine but complained more as the day wore on. By afternoon, she was unable to eat and the whole left side of her face was swollen. She and I camped on the sofas and she slept not at all, whimpering or outright crying most of the time. Tylenol had no impact. I forced her to lay on my chest at 3:00 a.m. and she finally fell deeply asleep.
In the morning, I hustled The Captain into his clothes and took him for breakfast at school to avoid waking her. She woke on my return, crying. She was willing to drink lots of water, but that was it. The doctor wanted to see us in the afternoon but I pressed for an earlier visit. Good thing as it turned out. The doctor was alarmed at the severity of her infected salivary gland and mystified as to how it happened. One more weird life-threatening illness for Tink. She gave a page of instructions for things to watch for that would necessitate a trip to the ER, none of which happened, thankfully. She is on 4-a-day antibiotic and a bland diet; our goal is not to cause excessive saliva because that causes pain. She slept on a pallet on the floor because Mom needed some sleep but slept through the night. I woke her at midnight for Motrin and antibiotic but she went right back to sleep. When she woke this morning, she said, "I feel a little better Mom!"
So all except Dear Hubby seem to be on the mend. He saw his ortho yesterday and the news was not particularly good: Live with the numbness or undergo one of 3 kinds of undesirable neck surgery. Guess he will live with it. They kept saying "degeneration consistent with aging" which didn't make him happy either.
Those are the tales of the sick and wounded. It's been a long week but happily, it's behind us. One more doctor's visit today for Tink and we should be on the way. Whew!
