Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Being Sick Was Great


What a week! And the title of this entry is right. As twisted as that sounds, I'll explain.
Last Sunday, I began to feel very strange. I didn't feel like myself. By the end of the day, I began to feel awful. I felt like I was freezing cold and could not get warm.
By Monday morning, I was completely ill. I had a fever of 99.8 first thing in the morning. I didn't think that was too bad, but my throat hurt SO badly, and I had a very bad cough, and my stomach was not feeling great. I called the doctor, and they prescribed some medicine for me. I was pretty restricted as far as what I could do. I was clad in sweats, t-shirt, slippers, my big fluffy robe, and blankets. I still felt so cold!
By mid-afternoon on Monday, my fever had reached a scorching 102.0. I felt AWFUL. I was barely doing anything but staying under a blanket and drinking water.
Lucky for me, Jake stayed home from work to help me with Judah. He ran to the grocery store to get water and Jello. Jello was the only thing I could eat that provided some relief to my painful throat! I got Judah to sleep, and I took a really great nap. Jake got home and helped with Judah by playing with him and feeding him . . . and changing diapers.
Tuesday afternoon went pretty much the same way: high fever, fluffy robe, feeling cold, Jake helping out. He was so wonderful!
By Wednesday, I lost my voice completely. I would say something, and Jake would say, "What?" I finally gave up trying to communicate, because it just hurt so badly. I didn't speak much, and poor Judah! He just didn't have anyone to talk with! He talked to me, but I just couldn't respond or give him verbal encouragement.

By the end of the week, Jake said that he'd changed more diapers in 3 days than he had changed in 3 months. Jake was so helpful with Judah, and he tried to help with the house as much as he could.
Jake assured me that he will never ask me to go to work full-time so that he can stay home with Judah. He said that staying home drove him crazy! Plus, he said he didn't know how I did everything that I do: taking care of Judah, cleaning, laundry, cooking dinner nightly. Other than taking care of Judah, none of these other things happened while I was sick. I just did not have the energy to do anything but keep myself and Judah alive and kicking!
So, even though being sick was a completely awful experience (and one I do NOT want to repeat anytime soon), some good came of it. Jake now is very verbal about his appreciation for my daily job as a wife and mom, which is just great to hear. It was also nice to watch Jake step up and take care of Judah like he did. While things were done differently than I did them, they were still taken care of.
And all three of us survived!

2 comments:

EdwinsonFamily said...

Ben has said that same thing to me.. "I don't know how you get as much done as you" and "it would drive me crazy to stay home". Of course these statements stemmed from him stepping up when I couldn't. It IS nice to be appreciated, isn't it!? I'm sure they meant to before, but there is something about stepping in to that role that brings it all home!

Florence and Gary Deeter said...

The flu bug really hits hard sometimes. Florence and I went through the same thing. I'm grateful that Jake was available and willing.

Grandpa D