Convalescent home

It has officially been a week since I last posted a blog.  If you start off the year with a failure, it can only get better, right? 

The fact that I missed 7 blogs is less than awesome considering that I am trying to post a blog entry everyday.  Unfortunately, for the last two weeks I have been running a convalescent home at our house.  The younger kids started getting sick a little over two weeks ago.  Runny nose, cough, congestion, etc.  Since all of my kids have horrible allergies it is often difficult to decide if they are just having regular allergies to something or if they are coming down with an actual illness.  Plus my youngest son runs a fever at the drop of a hat so it is really difficult to tell if he is sick. 

The youngest two were sick with this crud that everyone is our area seems to have starting two weeks ago, which culminated for them with a trip to our favorite pediatrician for my son to confirm an ear infection.  Yippee.  At least we are on medication and well on the way to being on the mend.  In the end of all of this horrible sickness that has been going around, he was also cutting three molars so we were all not sleeping during that time.  My youngest daughter has an incredible tolerance for pain and we never knew when she was cutting any teeth.  She slept the same and didn't put her hands in her mouth or chew on any toys or have any of the 'normal' teething symptoms.  My son is a textbook teether.  He drools, he is up for hours on end in the middle of the night, he cries, and whines and chews on everything including his hands, toys, other people's hands, etc.  Night and day difference...

When your children get sick, there is an immediate sense of dread that starts filling your house.  How long will it be until I get what they have?  I started feeling sick Saturday night after Silas's birthday party and honestly felt like I was getting the flu.  Body aches, stuffy nose, chills, etc.  I had intentions to take some Nyquil and head to bed, but Isabella had other plans.  Long story short, she and I were at the ER with a suspected broken arm for awhile that night.   I will insert here that some day I will post about how the diagnosis of her broken arm came about but right now it is too new and I have so much anger and guilt about it, that it is not healthy to talk about it.  I will leave it that we were able to confirm a break, she is in a cast for four weeks and she doesn't seem to even notice.  I slept well that night when we got home but still felt awful the next day.  I was sure that the flu had settled over me.  I laid on the couch for most of the day and tried to think about not feeling like death warmed over. 

Rarely do I actually get sick.  I will get a minor case of the allergies every so often, but I usually only get sick like this once every couple of years and it is miserable.  This is the first time that I have been sick like this since my younger children were born and it is less than awesome when you have to take care of other human beings while you are feeling like you want to climb in a hole and sleep for days.  I am honestly just now starting to feel better. 

This week is a new week and I am determined to make it better than last week.  I am going to leave behind the awful feelings of last week with being sick and dealing with several doctors appointments for my daughter and make this upcoming week better.  I have several awesome posts coming this week about Silas's birthday party and some new recipes that I am excited to try for this month.  I did my monthly grocery shopping today and am excited to share my meal plan and what we bought for this month.  I have been in a funk with cooking recently but am back on the cooking wagon. 

How has your week been? 

Sick kids & a day update

Both of my kids are sick right now.

Sigh...  If you have not ever been within 100 yards of a sick kid let me spell out what this means.  This means that there has been more crying and whining in my house today than there has been in like the last two weeks all put together.  Think of how whiny and gripey you feel when you are sick, especially if you are a man, and multiply that by like ten... thousand.  They want you to hold them but without touching them.  They want you to lay next to them but you can't because they actually feel like they are a live convection oven because of the fever.  They want to eat something but whine and cry and fight you the whole time because they can't think of anything that they want to eat.  All in all it's an awesome good time.

I previously had asked for the day off work today because I needed to go see my thyroid doctor in order to get a new prescription of thyroid medicine, and to go to the eye doctor to get a new contact prescription, so this is shaping up to be the most amazing day that I have had in a long time.  I hate when I take time off work and feel like I am busier than when I am at the office.  Call me lazy but I love just chilling at home when I am taking days off work - feels like I get some catch up on rest.  However, that didn't happen today... maybe the next time.   

I always have a lot of anxiety before I go to my thyroid doctor because he always gripes at me about my weight.  Let me start off by saying that I know that my weight is a problem and have finally got to a point where I am ready to do something about it.  We have been on this diet for three weeks on Monday and according to my scale at home, I am down 16.2 lbs, which is pretty awesome!  With that being said, since I started going to see this doctor, I have been in the same weight range.  I have fluctuated up and down because of my normal changes, two pregnancies, and my diet the first round.  Unfortunately, thanks to having no thyroid now for 10 years (this is ridiculous that it has been 10 years) I have to see him at the very least twice a year. 

This time I am vowing to be different.  I told him that I wanted to see him again in 3 months - I got him to agree by saying that I wanted him to monitor this weight loss since I really don't have a primary care doctor.  For the last three years I have used my OB as my primary care doctor since I was either pregnant or immediately postpartum that entire time.  Let's say that I am having a difficult time adjusting.  That is for another post. 

Luckily, he was nice today - partially because of this giant bus crash that we had near his office that was being dealt with at the time of my appointment, and partially because I was able to tell him about my success so far with this diet.  My next appointment is now scheduled for some time in July; we will see how far I have gone with this weight loss at that time.  In three months, I am hoping for 30-45 more pounds down. 

I stopped and picked up Subway at the Lake Worth Subway, which must have searched far and wide for the worst employees ever.  I have been there several times and every time that I go I have awful service.  No one acknowledges you when you walk in.  They have personal private conversations with each other while making your sandwich, and you often have to wait until they finish what they are talking about before they will address any need that you might have as the customer.  It looks like we will be looking for another Subway. 

I really love my eye doctor's office. I see Dr. Stephen Ference with Ference & Assoc.   I hate that it's inside of a mall because I feel like I need to shop when I go there.  He and his wife run an awesome practice.  They are very thorough and offer excellent customer service.  I would definitely recommend either one of them to anyone that I know.  Their office staff is super friendly and I have never been disappointed with any time that I have ever been there. 

All in all it's been a crazy day.  This bus crash is all over the news, my kids are both laid up, sick and whiney, and we are looking forward to our camping trip next weekend. 

Convalescent Home

Everyone in my house is sick. I have learned a few things over the last couple of days:

1. I am more of a baby when I am sick than my husband.
2. One should not take NyQuil unless one wants to be in a coma the next full 24 hours.
3. Sleeping in the same position for over five hours makes you have numb hands.

More tomorrow when I feel better..

-Sara