This year/season has been one of the worst for our family of 4 (2 of my children live out of state). My oldest son has missed 15 days of school already and it's only January 10, 2013! He's had the flu, multiple colds, bouts of diarrhea, and pneumonia.
Someone had said to me, "it's only kindergarten". Guess what? Kindergarten isn't just cookies and nap time like it was in 1974. It's mathematics, reading, and much more. My son has homework almost every night and he has reading homework nightly. So, it's not just kindergarten.
Even when I knew we were going on a vacation and he would be missing 2 school days, I notified his teacher so she could prepare his school work to give to me. Boy, he had a bunch of homework to do! Fortunately for us, he enjoys homework; thus far.
Once our oldest gets sick, that means his little brother gets sick as well. His little brother had an "unknown" 10 day virus that gave him crazy HIGH fevers. The pediatrician ran blood work, chest x-rays, and they had no idea what was wrong, so it was chalked up to the "unknown" 10 day virus.
During all of these illnesses the boys slept with me (lupus mom) because my husband can't afford to take time off for being sick since he works as a contracted temp employee. No work, no pay.
Guess who gets sick? yes, that's right...the person who has a big problem with her immunity! ME! I don't have the time or patience to get viruses or infections. I don't have time to go to MY doctor; he's well over an hour drive away.
The first time I got sick I just let it run it's course. It took some time but I dealt with it.
Our youngest became ill once again and it was Christmas Eve that I needed to take him to the doctor. Who's open? Ummm...Urgent Care. Great...a breeding ground for bacteria and more viruses.
My husband had taken our oldest to see a movie so I had to take our youngest to Urgent Care. Urgent Care was PACKED! People were coughing and hacking everywhere. I wanted to yell, "HELLO, there's masks up here"! But, I didn't.
We had a very nice 2 hour wait in the urgent care waiting room; children's area where young children apparently weren't taught proper manners by covering their mouths when they cough and sneeze. I pulled out my hand sanitizer and begin putting it on myself and my son. I know it probably is too late for this but in my mind I feel better about this. The devil on my shoulder is also telling me that in about 3 days I'll begin to feel like I'm in need of medication myself.
Right on cue; Thursday rolls around and I'm feeling like my head is going to explode. I feel sinus pressure like it's no ones business. This is Christmas break. My kids are out of school. We're supposed to be having fun and doing things. I don't have time to be sick and I certainly don't have time to go to the doctor.
By Friday night I'm feeling so sick that I don't even want to go to the doctor. Have you ever felt so sick that you don't want to go to the doctor? My doctor is over an hour drive and I kept him from when I lived in that area because he's that GOOD. But, when I'm this sick I don't want to be bothered. I wait it out thinking that OTC medication will help.
OK...this isn't going to work. New Years Eve day rolls around and I'm up before anyone else. I get dressed and tell my husband I'm going to Urgent Care. He's surprised I'm up but glad I'm going.
I'm not pleased that I have to go back to the same place that originally got me sick but I can't go anywhere else.
I self diagnosed myself, told the doctor what I have and she looks and said "I'm giving you "this" for the infection" and I also told her to give me Diflucan because us women know what happens when we take an antibiotic. Ugh..
It kind of sucks that 1) you have to go somewhere to get medication when you self diagnose 2) get sick at a place that is treating you for an illness 3) still being sick after 11 days and feel like you're coming down with something else.
Having Lupus has taught me to research and to be an advocate. But, what I learned from my mother is to take care of others before you take care of yourself. I don't know if that is a good trait or a bad trait. I think it's a caring trait, but I also don't think it will do me much good if I'm not good to myself/healthy and I can't take care of my family. I need to learn to start taking better care of myself so I can be around longer for my 2 adult children, my 2 young boys, and my 2 grandsons and last but not least, my Rock!
No comments:
Post a Comment