Jennifer Moody

1) I have been sick. As in, feverish-and-coughing-up-a-lung actually sick. Yesterday was the first day since the weekend I didn’t need ibuprofen just to get out of bed, and I’m still pretty snuggly with the Nyquil when the sun goes down.

2) I wasn’t, at first, but Little Princess was. She had a fever of 102 last Thursday morning. Her school secretary reminded me kids have to be fever-free for 24 hours before coming back to school, so she just went ahead and signed her out for Friday, too. I felt fine, then, so I did a little work from home, ran some eight tons of laundry and cleaned the bathroom while LP, who was remarkably cheerful in spite of her fever and a wicked cough, alternately played on the Wii,  watched Disney’s “Robin Hood” and listened to me read to her from the seventh Harry Potter book. We had homemade chicken soup for dinner.

3) That was the last time we had either a clean house or a real dinner. Husband took over the sickroom for the weekend while I went on a long-planned scrapbooking getaway with friends. He allowed sleepovers. (I would not have allowed sleepovers with fevers so recently broken, but that is because I am a Mean Mom.) I arrived home just after noon Sunday to find the living room buried in discarded sweaters, socks, shoes, backpacks, Scholastic book order forms, sparkly barrettes, toy catalogs, empty VHS boxes, colored pencils and Littlest Pet Shop critters. I did the sensible thing and went to bed.

4) Turns out I needed that extra rest to help me fight my own fever, which hit Sunday night and didn’t break until sometime Tuesday. I stayed on the couch for most of that time, sustaining myself with hot tea, cold water, grape juice and “The Proposal” on DVD. (The 5-Cent Critic will take that one on at another time.) Slightly Older Princess came home from school Monday with a 99-degree temperature, but she was back to normal pretty quickly.

5) Husband went down with his own fever on Tuesday and stayed home from work for the next two days. By then I was back at work, propped up by cold medicine but with little real energy. Blankets, pillows, Kleenexes and used drinking glasses joined the detritus on living room and game room floors. We had Campbell’s vegetable soup and canned peaches for dinner for anyone who felt up to eating.

6) We are all back to our respective regular lives as of today, more or less, although we’re all coughing and I still sound sort of like Kim Carnes. I plan to use this weekend to dig ourselves out from under the accumulated litter and laundry. (NO SLEEPOVERS.) And next week maybe I’ll get back to A-Z blogging.

People keep asking me if it was the swine flu. I have no idea, but I’d say no, at least for myself. I have had what I considered to be the real flu just twice in my life, and both times it hit me like the proverbial truck. I slept because I had no energy to do anything else. If I needed the bathroom I practically had to crawl. Everything hurt, even my eyeballs. I was out for days. Not this time. I was definitely sick, but I could still function somewhat, and it didn’t last nearly as long. If the Princesses had it, they got off darned easy.

7) Lebanon High School had a free H1N1 vaccination clinic last night, and I did stop by with both Princesses, figuring better to be safe. But we had conflicts that kept us from arriving until 5 p.m., and after waiting in line 40 minutes and learning it would be at least another hour, and knowing Slightly Older Princess was due at a play rehearsal in Albany at 6:30, I gave up and we left.

That which does not kill you makes you stronger. I hope.

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