Jillian and the Terrible, Horrible, Blah Blah Blah Blah Day

by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . March 23, 2009 . 1:16AM

Whew. For the third time in two months, my throat is as sore as a sunburn on an albino chicken. The last time it was sore like this was just 2 weeks ago on my spring break when I had an outbreak of bird flu aka strep throat. I’d been denying it, oh, I’d been denying it, since Friday. I hadn’t been leaving the house, but I hadn’t been bellyaching about it like I did today.

What made it clear that I was in trouble was the awful fatigue that settled my bones. An hour after I woke up, I wanted a nap. Three hours after I woke up, I craved a nap and nothing I did would rid me of the need. AJ lovingly told me that I looked like the Scream mask while I slept. He didn’t know it was the “scream mask,” he just made the face, scrunched up his eyes and made a large OOOOO with his mouth. Little snot. At least he didn’t comment on my snoring.

For our anniversary, one of my gifts was a Nap set. I was dubious as to the use of this item, as when I nap, I enjoy my huge, King size bed and my own pillow, but Husband does a good job with gifts and I was waiting to see how this one fared on a day like today.

When the “nappies” (not a diaper for those of you who use that terminology) came on me, it started slowly. First, my feet were freezing. Then, I slowly lay down on the couch as Husband made room for me amid all of his lawyer-ly work stuff. The blanket came out amid a case of the shivers and the pillow slowly followed. I don’t remember much beyond that point. As AJ said, “the scream” was very much in effect.

It strikes me how, when we’re sick, we lose all the facade that we put out there on a regular day. Life goes back to basic things: sleep, food, bathroom breaks, and cuddling on demand. There was no disagreement as to what we were doing over the weekend because I didn’t care what they did. I was silent on the couch. My husband probably cherished that silence, as it is rare. AJ got to go to a friend’s house without having to do chores first and stay much longer than usual. I slept the sleep of unknowing, uncaring and just wanting to feel better. What I ate was no longer important and frankly, I didn’t care if I ate. How I looked was not in the slightest important, though was funny to my 8 year old. The dogs were caring and concerned and stayed beside me, as did my Husband. He checked on me every little bit with ibuprofen and making sure I didn’t need anything.

Maybe it wasn’t such a bad day, after all.