Sunday, April 26, 2009

Journal of the plague week


Barely alive, I bravely scrawl these words (can't really scrawl dramatically on a blog can you? Annoying.) Anyway, my house is littered with the (near) corpses of my loved ones. Occasionally they lift their heads and ask pathetically for a bucket to throw up into or some ice chips to wet their poor, parched lips. Now that I am risen from my own plague bed, I'm tending the other victims like a grumpy Florence Nightingale. Because really, there is nothing worse than feeling like utter crap, but still having to take care of people who are worse off than you.

So, friends, if I make it through this alive, well, I'll return anon.

15 comments:

Kathleen said...

Sending healing thoughts your way. Sounds just awful. Hard enough to get oneself well, let alone a whole household.

Been around anyone from Mexico lately? If so, might be worth a trip to he doctor to get tested for flu.

Hopefully, this will all pass soon.

Dr. Monkey Von Monkerstein said...

Forsooth fiar maid, get thee well or get thee to a nunnery.

jason said...

oh my goodness....you take care of your self up there!
Sending good energy to you too.

mumbliss said...

Dear Elizabeth,
It sounds awful. I am so sorry for all of you.
One of the great benefits of children growing up and leaving the nest is that the throwup bug doesn't visit very often.

I remember when.... soft music pipes in****____*****

in our small bathroom in Cambridge,
One of us was sick in the toilet, one was being sick over the side of the tub, I was sick in the waste basket and holding a small one who was erupting into the sink.
The good news is that it passed and turned into a funny story for a select few, also that the most difficult patient, the other grown-up, didn't get the bug. The bad news is that there was a lot of clean-up for several days. There isn't much glory in the job sometimes, just recognition and applause from the other poor schlepps who have had to live through it to tell the tale. I hope you feell better soon. My condolences...

yellowdoggranny said...

dang..wish i was there to make you some home made chicken soup...get well soon sweety..

Willym said...

Poverini... sending you all sorts of get well soon thoughts. Unfortunately the way you choose to tell us about the sad state of affairs chez vous reminded me of the opening of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Hopefully the whole lot of you are up and singing "We Ain't Dead Yet!" in record time.

sageweb said...

Holy cow, hope everyone gets better soon.

Elizabeth said...

Thanks all! We are now returning slowly to something like normal, if your version of normal involves eating white bread and drinking gingerale. This too shall pass, and I don't mean it THAT way!

Kathleen - Believe me, I did think about swine flu, but this was just a GI thing. No respiratory symptoms....

Dr. Monkey - Thanketh you!

Jason - I appreciate it, hon. And at least I don't have poisonous biting caterpillars falling on me, right?

Mumbliss - Oh, that story actually made me feel better! I do remember your teensy bathroom in Cambridge. The sink, the tub, the toilet, and the waste basket weren't very far apart!

granny - Thanks dear. Even chicken soup would be too exciting for us right now!

Willym - I gotta say, it felt like that for a while there! Just when I thought they were dead for good....

mrpeenee said...

Oh dear. I think the benefits of euthanasia are often overlooked.

And Mumblis is so right about the recognition and reward part.

ayeM8y said...

I think Florence Nightingale was overrated. I mean really who goes about tending to the sick with a chipper and cheerful disposition? None of the healers that I have encountered that’s who. It’s so tough having the little ones around and sickly passing it around and endlessly being sick. Keep up the grumpiness Nurse Nightingale because nothing makes me want to get well quicker than a mean caretaker.

Doralong said...

It's a natural law- Mom is always the last to go down. And also always manages to claw her way upright to tend to the others. My profound sympathy dear!

Doralong said...

It's a natural law- Mom is always the last to go down. And also always manages to claw her way upright to tend to the others. My profound sympathy dear!

a thousand shades of twilight said...

Hope that by the time that you read this, everyone is feeling better!
I remember seeing a comedy sketch once that depicted Florence Nightingale as a very angry person who swore a lot - understandable, I feel...
xx

more cowbell said...

Ah the hell that is Motherhood in a sickhouse! Glad to hear you haven't been struck by the swine flu.

I remember one year this horrible influenza strain started in Russia and swept across all of Eastern Europe. It was all over the news, schools were closed, businesses shut down, bad stuff. We all caught it, but I and my eldest daughter had it the worst. I remember wondering if I literally was going to die, and feeling so bad that I didn't care. But the worst part? Being mom and knowing that if we all felt that bad, I had to be the one to get up, make sure the kids were OK and hydrated.

Being super sick sucks, but being a mom and while being super sick sucks more.

Feel better, and take care of you too.

mumbliss said...

Dear Elizabeth,
When is anon?