Blog · April 8, 2016

No Sick Days for Me & It’s Ok

I remember clearly being sick when I had a “regular job”. It was pretty simple, really. I would call in sick and I would stay in bed all day. I even remember with sadness when I left work when I started bleeding when I was 7 weeks pregnant back in late 1995-from there I went to the Doctor who did an ultrasound and could not detect a heartbeat and sent me home on bed rest. My employer at the time was extremely kind and told me to stay home “as long as I needed to”. I laid on the couch for days, not doing a thing. The bleeding kept getting worse, culminating in a miscarriage. This was 7 months after I had buried my first baby, so to say it was devastating it’s the understatement of the year. But, alas, I didn’t have to do anything but take care of myself and muster enough courage to go back to work, as presentable as I could be, the following week.

12273667_10153810694557174_3146985371608966090_oNowadays, getting sick is not easy at all. I am not complaining, mind you, I am just explaining my life. I got some “bug” on my trip to Stanford this past Monday. At first I thought it may have been food poisoning, but now I know it wasn’t. I must have just touched “something”. All I know is that the night between monday and tuesday I wasn’t feeling good. Tuesday morning my stomach was in knots and had other nasty symptoms I rather not mention… Nicky often tells me “TMI mamma, TMI!!!”, LOL. So, no TMI here today.
Feeling as sick as a dog, I still had to drive home. Six hours. Well, it would have been six hours, but since I had to stop at every rest stop in sight, it took nearly eight. In one particular rest area I spent 15 minutes in the bathroom. Nicky, bless his heart, was so worried about me.

Somehow I got home. After I rested up for a few hours, I had to get Nicky in bed, which normally takes a good 45 minutes. There is nobody else that can do that for me. I had to do it. Let’s just say, it took a lot longer than 45 minutes.
The next day I felt worse. I could not stand up, I was dizzy. I still had all those symptoms I had before. I spent all day in bed except for those few times I had to take care of Nicky, which I did at a snail’s pace. Then I had to change bandages. It was most possibly the worst bandage change I have ever done in 19 years, and that’s not something I say lightly. Not only it took forever, I was in pain, he was in pain, it was horrible.

I decided that if I felt like this the next day I was going to go to the Doctor. The next day though I felt much better. Still not 100% by any stretch of the imagination, but good enough not to be bed-bound all day. I asked Nicky’s dad if he could come and get him a day early for his weekend and he agreed. My life-saver. I know many people hate their exes. I don’t and never will. In some way, he allowed me my “sick day”, which I took in full force yesterday, spending most of the day in bed relaxing, trying to get better.

Today I feel… well, still not quite myself, but close. Only to find out Connor has the same symptoms I had. Noooooo!!!  He went to school anyway because he needed to turn in his project, but I told him to make sure to have the nurse call me to pick him up the moment he didn’t feel good. She called me an hour later. What can I say? Never a dull moment around here.

The truth is, I love my family, my kids are my life. Even if I don’t feel 100% I will let anything I want to do “go” as long as I do everything I can for them. It’s who I am, it’s what a mom does, and I know I am not alone in this. Tons of Special Needs moms out there, will for surely relate.

Love & Light,

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