Last Sunday I woke up in a fire. It was an inferno of viral viciousness that vexed me greatly. The kids were sick. Reagan had a cough and Elly was fussy and felt warm. Dessa and I drew lots and I was determined to be the stay-at-home parent for the day. If I had only known what that day would bring…
Day w/out Dessa: Hour 1
I’m holding Elly, who’s sleeping, and Reagan is cuddled up at my side. We’re watching Ducktales. I then noticed that the blanket that he’s under feels wet. Upon further inspection, so do his underwear. I was a bit upset that he didn’t go potty, and then was a little more upset when he wouldn’t listen to me that he needed to go to the bathroom. He kept turning his head away from me whenever I would say anything. Well, I was about to feel absolutely horrible for getting upset at all, because it turned out that he was just out of it. While we’d been lying there, he’d gotten a fever. Did I mention that I felt horrible? Aside from feeling horrible, I was also kind of panicky. He was acting very strange. I got him some Tylenol and some clean clothes (complete with a pull up) and he quickly fell asleep on the couch. An hour later, he woke up and was doing much better, but still had a bit of a fever.
Day w/out Dessa: Hour 3
So Reagan’s feeling better, but Elly seems to be warmer. I take her temperature under her arm and it’s something close to 100. I call her pediatrician, and they tell me that if it gets to 100.4, she has to go to the hospital. However, to get an accurate temp, I have to take it rectally. WHAT?! I’m the dad who gets uncomfortable when I hear the first poopy grunt, let alone doing that. But, I sucked it up and ask how I do it. She mentioned I had to have Vaseline. Guess what. Not a bit a vaseline in the entire house. Thankfully, my wonderful neighbor went to the store for me when I asked her if I could borrow some. Her temperature was below the max, so there was no immediate worries.
During this whole process with Elly, I’m also trying desperately to get a hold of Dessa. I Need Reinforcements! About the time that I’m stressing about the Vaseline, I finally get her on her cell and beg her to come home and help, which I’m sorry that I had to do because she was taking her Drama Team out for lunch.
I think I really just wanted her around for stability, because she couldn’t do much when she got there because, you guessed it, she was sick too. So, I spent the rest of the night taking care of two sick children and a sick wife, which I really didn’t mind at all. Once she was there, it really was a lot easier. Now after all of this, the worst part for me is that I got hit harder than anyone yesterday afternoon. After coming home from work early, I spent nearly all of yesterday afternoon and last night (up until 7:30am this morning) with a fever so bad I couldn’t stop shaking. It broke once and then came back. After a day of rest, I still feel sick with a scratchy throat, coughing, congestion, etc., but the fever seems to be gone.
Kind of a rough few days, but it sure is nice to know that Jesus is still in control.
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