Back On Track

Holy cow, folks - I feel like I lost two weeks of my life.

I started feeling a little under the weather on a Thursday morning, but given my history of relative health and fairly high pain tolerance, I assumed I had just come down with a cold. I "powered through" for five full days, until Monday night when I went to bed and didn't get up again until Sunday afternoon. (Well, I got up on Friday afternoon, but only for a trip to Urgent Care for IV fluids and anti-nausea meds.) I eventually eased back into life a few hours at a time, and thankfully by last Thursday I felt well enough to co-pilot our annual 4th Grade Variety Show at the kids' elementary school.

Please don't read my description of this illness as complaining. I rarely get sick beyond one cold a year, so a part of me feels like my figurative turn had come. (Other than ONE 12-hour stomach bug, I haven't had an illness that required me to spend the day in bed in more than 20 years, when I had shingles as a freshman in college.) If anything, I feel grateful to have made it to the other side of this mess in one piece, and for all of the support I and my family received along the way.

Tom went to work when he had to - he had multiple graduate students going through their qualifying exams in the middle of all this - but otherwise he stayed home to take care of Will and Hallie. I talked sobbed to my mom on the darkest morning and she was on a plane from Wisconsin to Texas three hours later. She stayed for a full week to help Tom nurse me and the kids back to health and then help me get through a crazy week (see: 4th Grade Variety Show mentioned above). My friends brought Gatorade and Sprite and soup and crackers and medicine. They brought magazines and books and toys for the kids. They came into my house (gutsy of them, given the plethora of germs that must have been floating around at the time) and checked on my kids when I couldn't get out of bed. They picked up and delivered homework, took kids to school when they were healthy, and picked me up from Urgent Care. It takes a village, folks. And I have a great one.

I have A LOT to catch up on after the last nearly three weeks, but I finally feel like I'm back on track. Thanks for sticking with me!

I took only one picture - of Will playing a few songs on the cello
for my mom - since all this began. The picture doesn't exactly sum
up our last two weeks, but it's kind of sweet.