It’s been a rough weekend, really rough…really, really rough. I just completed my first week of classes. I was thrilled to be able to have the weekend to catch up on homework from the week, while Logan was at his dad’s; no such luck. About Thursday afternoon I could feel I was coming down with something. My dad had been sick all week and Logan was getting the beginnings of what I thought was a cold on top of that. Our house had become a walking germ, but I prayed it would be short-lived. When Logan came back from his dad’s early Saturday evening I knew something was up. He wanted to be carried everywhere, he was whining, and was all around pretty miserable. I laid him down on the bed only to find that he had a fever of 104. No wonder he was so miserable. I gave him some Tylenol and rushed him over to the Instacare in hopes of getting something stronger to help him kick this. Unfortunately the doctor said he’d rather wait it out than give him an antibiotic, but did have the courtesy to tell me that he was highly contagious and since I was holding him so close to comfort him that I’d likely get it as well. Peachy. How do you choose between getting sick and comforting your little one? It wasn’t much of a choice for me. I wasn’t going to quarantine him in his room because he was sick, but in doing this I knew I was going to have to sacrifice my own health.
Within about an hour I could feel it hit me. I too had a fever, chills, and a nasty chest cough. I spent the majority of the day in bed or on the couch with barely any energy to move, let alone take care of my little one. It was all I could do to get us both in the tub today. Luckily, he was willing to relax a little bit since he wasn’t feeling well either, otherwise I’m really not sure what I would have done.
Being a sick as a single mother is beyond challenging. You want nothing more than for someone to come take care of you, when in fact you have to go take care of your little ones, when you can barely get out of bed. The list of things to do remains, because you’re the only one there to do it. All around it’s not a very fun job. Now that flu season has struck, keep your little ones bundled up, and carry around some hand sanitizer in your pocket and use it often. The last thing you need is a germ attack!