Flu Attack

It all started last Tuesday when DD18 came home from school sick with the flu. You know, aching, headache, diarrhea, stuffy nose etc. She was laid up for 3 days in her room. Saturday night DH was up at 1:30 a.m. in the bathroom getting rid of everything in his body. At one point, he blacked out and fell practically biting his lip off. It was a long night. He was down for 2 days before he started to feel back to himself. I was happy to play caregiver, after all, I was feeling fine.

So, Monday afternoon, DD17 has to have older sis pick her up from school. Yep, she has it, too. The flu. She got home and curled up on the couch for a couple of hours. Later DD 18 noticed she had been in the bathroom for 45 minutes so I check on her. She was literally camped out in there with her blanket, a pot, and sitting on the floor in front of the commode. That's no way to be sick. So we convinced her to camp out on the couch some more. She was cold as ice, 96.4 temp and pasty, pale white. So we do our best to keep her comfortable.

Fast forward to 11:00 p.m. Monday evening and you guessed it. Me! I'm making friends with the commode in the bathroom. Aching, miserable, and honestly, just how long can this go on? There can't possibly be anything left in my body to get rid of. This flu that we had is sudden and violent. Not fun! I don't buy acetaminophen because it has never helped me with headaches or anything else. But the ibuprofen and aleve that we had on hand said to take with food, which I obviously hadn't eaten, and I didn't want to further distress my stomach. So DH made a run to town Tuesday and picked some acetaminophen up and guess what. I took two at 1:00, and fell asleep for an hour. At 2:00 p.m., I woke up and most of my achiness was gone. I was on the road to recovery!

The biggest challenge was to try and keep DD17 hydrated. She didn't want to take anything in. She finally perked up Tuesday afternoon and had some toast and gatorade. Plus, she's off to school today. I stayed home again today. I want to be sure I don't have any unforeseen bodily attacks at school!

I haven't had a flu shot in about 5 years. The last time I had a flu shot, I was sicker than a dog for the next 2 days with all the miserable flu symptoms. I haven't had one since. The rest of my family doesn't get the shots either. I don't know that I trust what the government puts in those shots, either. And why do I want to be putting the virus in my body anyway? Flu shots are only good for a few strains of the flu, and who knows, we may have had a strain that wasn't included in the shots. I have heard it is going through the schools here. It's never fun. But my advice is to have some acetaminophen on hand. It was my life saver.

Trudging on...

It's been one of those weeks where you are dead beat tired but there is so much to do. To top it off, I'm battling a cold. It started last week with just being busy. Then Saturday I spent my entire day with a family picking and pressing apples for cider. Sunday, I canned the cider up and dried some apples and tried to get caught up on laundry, bills, etc. Monday evening my husband and I attended a Care Net Banquet fundraiser. Tuesday I was my youngest daughters 17th birthday and my 18 year old came home from school sicker than a dog with a 102 temp and slept the rest of the day. Also on Tuesday, a dear old neighbor from Oregon showed up for a wonderful visit and stayed a couple of days. I also stayed up past my normal bedtime in order to visit, so I'm not complaining, but it left me tired.

Wednesday rolled around and I'm pretty exhausted but still trucking along. Report cards are due next week, our class party is Friday and I still have planning for the following week. Got my hair cut on Thursday and worked out. Well, Friday my oldest has not gone to school and sounds horrible. She said her lower back is killing her and she hasn't urinated all morning. I'm thinking kidney issues and make an appointment with the doctor, explaining to the triage nurse that she has been sick all week with a high of 102, stuffy, aching, coughing, and now lower back pain and not peeing. Well, I'm at school working so I can't go with her, but she is 18 anyway, so she can start to take on these kinds of responsibilities. She gets to the doctor and they don't even take her temp. or her blood pressure. The diagnoses: a back strain. Yeah, I was pretty peeved that we had to spend money for him not to even look at her. She's just been laying in bed and getting up to go to the bathroom or get a drink and bite of something to eat. We're praying for a quick recovery and back to her normal school and work routine.

Today, I didn't work out but went to town and found a pair of pants for work. I got home and started some apples in the dryer. I would dry at night, but mine dry in about 8 hours, so I don't want it running all night or all day while I'm away because I don't want them over dried. So I'm doing 2 dryer loads over each weekend. I have an apple coffee cake in the oven right now. It smells delicious! Our neighbor who came up over the week bought us some kielbasa at a local Italian deli while he was here and we are having it tonight. I can hardly wait to try it.

So this weekend I am going to try and lay low (sort of) and get laundry caught up and bills paid. The lawn needs mowing and we haven't winter fertilized it yet. It got down to 20 degrees Tuesday and Wednesday night, so the couple of apples that were left on my trees are not good. But I picked all the decent ones and got tomatoes picked and in the garage. I need to do something with them tomorrow. Either make salsa, tomato sauce or can them up whole. Not sure yet. That's about all we've been up to around here. Busy as always, and just trying to get by.