Flu Bug Don’t Bother Me!

We have been struck down without mercy by the dreaded influenza.. I started not feeling the greatest Saturday but attributed it to a little too much Christmas fun. We had 4 late nights in a row and were a little Christmased out, although we do love to see family.

In the wee hours of Sunday morning, Ben and I woke up with pounding headaches and chills from the stirrings of fevers. Fast forward through a miserable blinding blur of high fevers, body-wracking chills, pounding headaches, nasty coughs, sore throats, nausea, horrible body aches, etc and you have our history of the past 4 days. I was literally in tears Sunday afternoon, unable to stop or even wipe away the tears raining down my face I felt so incredibly bad.

Imagine my hoarse groans when Zakkai presented himself to me first thing Monday morning with flushed cheeks saying he didn’t feel well. Ugh. He escalated up to fevers over 104 yesterday and vomited a few times but miraculously (to us) is 90% better today. So unfair.

Ben and I have been flat laid-out. The kiddos have been so incredibly good while we have been ill, playing with their Legos and new Christmas toys, which is helpful since I have no voice left to scold them with and neither of us has the energy to deal with any bad behavior. They are starting to get a little cagey but we are still sick and contagious so we are house-bound for now. Watching movies a lot the past 2 days. Surviving on soup and crackers brought by our dear mothers. Praying that each day we will feel a little better and thankful that we have survived so far.

I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy.

Home Sweet Home?

 Well, Good Ole Indianer failed us once again yesterday and closed most of it’s highways, namely the ones that we use to travel home, so we had to delay our trip home again. We were hesitant to travel because of the crazy cold temperatures anyways so we were glad for a very clear sign about whether or not to go.

This morning the travel news was only slightly better and we were feeling pretty frustrated because we really had to get home. We spent a lot of time early this morning mapping out a new, alternate route to get home, avoiding all of the closed highways. Instead of 6 hours to get home, it took us about 8 1/2. Needless to say, we were ALL on the cagey, cranky side by the last hour or two!!

I know I have mentioned once or ten times how much I dislike Indiana. Here is just a simple example of one of the many reasons I can think of that this state should be inhabitable. Isn’t that ugly? This would be Gary, Indiana, birthplace of Michael Jackson. It stinks (literally) and it is FILLED with factories. It is hideous.

But we were pretty ticked with Indiana today because they seriously dropped the ball with their road plowing. There was a clear difference between Ohio roads and Indy roads. We saw SO many cars off the road, stuck in ditches or almost perpendicular in huge snow banks!

We are incredibly thankful for a safe, if long trip home:)

When we arrived home, we found a huge, unshoveled heap of snow outside. In order to even unpack our car and get inside, Ben and the boys had to do a quick shovel job. Not sure where the landlords have been this past week since all the snow?? There is definitely a lot for the kiddos to play in once the temps rise!

One nice thing about our departure delay was that the boys’ school was canceled anyways the past two days so we didn’t have to worry about that. We got home at dinnertime and we’re all feeling a bit overwhelmed at jumping right back into our busy day tomorrow but we are all tucked in bed early so hopefully we’ll be ready to go!

We left my grandpa (who had to make a trip to the ER himself yesterday) looking much better and are praying for health to be restored quickly to everyone! That stomach flu was nothing to mess with. It seemed to strike in the wee hours of the morning and there was nothing we could do to stop it. No amount of cloroxing, hand-washing or quarantining helped us avoid it!

Only Ben, Zakkai and my stepdad were left standing when all was said and done. (E had her own before we left for Ohio.) Every 5 minutes we would look at the healthy (lucky) ones and say, “How are you feeling? Okay? How’s your stomach?” We were all panicking at the slightest twinge or pain in our stomachs!

Hopefully that was it for the winter. One can hope! Samuel is having a hard time recovering from the stomach bug. He even threw up again Sunday night and still doesn’t have much of an appetite. Hopefully he will get back to normal soon.

All in all, it was a very strange Christmas break for many reasons, as I am sure most of our OH family would agree. But even though we were quarantined most of the time and didn’t get to see anyone or even say goodbye to pretty much everyone (so sorry to my mom, Ben’s mom, Derek, my brother in law…), we are really really thankful that we were able to be there to help my Grandma and to watch my Grandpa be reunited with her on New Year’s Day.

We were also able to see and be re-reminded of how family works together to help each other. People were jumping in left and right to help with meals, cleaning, caring for sick ones, even when barely recovered themselves. And we can always find something to laugh about later from those chaotic moments:)

 I am very thankful for my family! Goodnight from snowy COLD Chicago!

The Black Plague

Well, haven’t we had a time of it the past couple of days! I spent Friday running around washing laundry and packing everything up for our early morning departure for snowy Chicago, only to have our plans sadly waylaid.

At 1:45 Saturday morning, I was woken up by the simulatenous noise of the basement bathroom door shutting and Grandpa clomping around in his walker upstairs. I immediately felt that something wasn’t right and went in the downstairs bathroom to find Samuel hanging over the toilet, as pale as a ghost. I went upstairs to use the bathroom, only to have all hell break loose a moment later with my poor Grandma in the same state as Samuel. My Grandpa and I were both saying, “Oh no, oh no!” because we knew, from other family member’s experiences this week, that this stomach flu is like no other and sends just about everyone to the ER with dehydration.

I spent the next 2 1/2 hours half-dozing on the couch in the basement, waiting for the next stirrings or calling of my name from Samuel or my Grandma. I couldn’t reach my mom, stepdad or aunt on the phone to help but finally I got worried enough around 4:15am that I found the phone number of my step uncle and roused them from a sleep with a “Mayday” call for help! My aunt, thankfully a nurse, drove over to check on Gma and found her so weak and sick.

To make matters worse, I had not been feeling right in my stomach for a couple of days and felt worse and worse but succumbed myself to the stomach flu within an hour or two of my aunt’s arrival. My mom woke up around 8:30am and saw the messages and realized we were like a sinking ship, going down one by one over here and raced over to help and she was only 24 hours out of the hospital herself!!

Needless to say it was bedlam over here. While I was in the throes of misery, my poor grandma had to be taken by ambulance to the hospital, which left everyone in tears! My aunt went with her to the hospital and Ben and my mom held down the fort here with nausea meds, laundry, sprite and gatorade and updates on my grandma. Samuel started perking up about the time I was the sickest and around dinnertime, I was able to drag myself out of the bedroom to lay on the couch with him. Boy, were we a pair! We ate a little broth and watched a cartoon together but it was early bedtime for us!

My mom stayed over part of the night to make sure my grandma didn’t need some help as she was incredibly weak and then my aunt came and spent the rest of the night and early morning.

Today, the three of us have been as weak as can be, pale and have little appetite but we are alive and there are no new cases, thank the Lord! We have all been so worried about my Grandpa getting it, as he is freshly home from the hospital after a rough month of recovery after surgery. Please pray he does not get it and also for Ben and Z and E!

The best laid plans can go awry they say! We went from planning on going home Thursday to being delayed because of snow, all packed up to leave Saturday morning only to be bombarded with the Black Plague and we are hemming and hawing about tomorrow, as the weather was SO bad on our travel route today and the temps will only be about -11 to -15 through Indiana and our home tomorrow. Yikes!

Guess we’ll find out in the morning if we will ever make it back to Chicago….

Signing off from germy Ohio…..