I don't remember, I don't recall...

the last time an illness knocked me out of commission for three days!

It was probably inevitable. All three of the kids have been sick at some point in the past week or so, and I have ended up doing most of the caring for the sick children (please note: I did not say ALL. Ryan did some too, they just seemed to get sick when Ryan had prior commitments)

It started on Fri Jan 23. We had Rangers tickets and Sammie and I were supposed to go. However, after school, she was in bed instead of helping to clean the toy room. I told her if she was too sick to clean up she was too sick to go to the Rangers game, thinking surely that would get her out of bed, but she just went back to sleep. She developed a fever, and we realized that she really was sick. So Ryan stayed home with Sammie and Rylee, and I took Hailey to the game.

The next day Hailey woke up and said her tummy hurt. I suggested that maybe she was just hungry, or it was the result of too much sugar at the game (she ate most of a bag of cotton candy) Ryan was in a curling bonspiel that day, so I took all three of them to gymnastics (after asking Sammie how she felt, hoping she'd say she was still sick so I could sleep in!) At gymnastics, Hailey finished her class and said she was cold (which was Sam's first symptom) and her tummy hurt. She ended up falling asleep in my arms, and throwing up the minute we walked in the door from gymnastics. I spent the rest of the day checking temperatures (Sammie still had a bit of a fever, too) and checking on a sleeping Hailey to make sure she was still breathing. Sunday both girls were mostly better, and by Monday they were fine to go to school.

Ryan had a day off on the Wed, so I called home after school to remind him to turn the oven on and put dinner in. I expected to get the machine, thinking he'd be working in the basement (he's in the process of finishing our basement), and told him so when he answered. He said he'd done very little work in the basement because the babysitter had called and said Rylee was throwing up. He'd spent most of the day cuddling with her and cleaning her up when she threw up. She threw up again through the night, so I took the next day off as a family care day (bless whoever came up with those!) She seemed fine that day, no fever and no more throwing up, so on Friday, which was a PA day, I took all three of them to the sitter and went off to work.

So that night I was on the phone with a friend trying to make vacation plans when Rylee started crying. Ryan was on the couch with her and asked her if she was hurt, but she just kept crying, until she threw up. I hung up, we cleaned everything (I cleaned and changed Rylee, Ryan cleaned the couch) She threw up again the next morning, right after I said I didn't think she should go to gymnastics. She threw up again while I was gone with Sam and Hailey, so I took her to the doctor on call and sat with her on my lap for about two hours before we saw the doctor. I think that was the final straw.

On SuperBowl Sunday I woke up feeling not quite right, but not terrible. However, as the day went on, I felt worse. I could barely focus at church, and by the time we got home, I could hardly function. I tried giving myself a stern talking-to, saying, "You're not sick, you're just being lazy because you don't want to make the Key Lime pie," but the truth was, I could hardly stand upright. Sammie and Hailey pretty much made lunch for themselves and Rylee (Ryan was out buying last minute supplies for our SuperBowl party).

That day was also our priest's last day at our church, so Ryan went to the farewell celebration (I was in no condition to leave) He didn't get home in time to take Sammie and Hailey to hockey, so I did, and took Rylee with us, too. We realized we didn't have their sticks, but couldn't find them, so I figured they were in Ryan's car and maybe he was meeting us at the rink. We drove over and didn't find him. I asked if there were extra sticks, but no luck. We drove home, where Ryan told us he had just sent the sticks to the rink with friends of ours. The friends showed up back at our house shortly after, followed by another friend who was coming to the party. I sat down on the couch, barely aware of what was happening around me. My friend suggested I looked like I needed to go to bed, and I decided he was right, so I walked upstairs and did just that. That was around 4 pm, and I didn't surface until about 7:30. I walked downstairs with about 5 min to go in the first half, and most of our friends left at halftime. I then fell asleep on the couch, and finally went to bed around 9:30.

At around 11:30 that night, I heard Rylee crying. I heard Ryan walk into her room, then heard a curse word. I got up and joined him in the girls room, where I saw that Rylee had thrown up. Again. I cleaned her up, Ryan cleaned the bed up and we decided to put her in our bed for the night. At about 3 am I realized that even if I felt better, I wasn't sleeping well, so I should probably take Monday off. I woke up every time Rylee coughed, thinking she was going to throw up in my bed, but she never did. I stayed home yesterday, and since Ryan didn't have a call, he was here, too. We also kept Rylee home, just in case.

Last night I was on the phone with my sister, the nurse, who recommended one more day off. I decided that was good advice so I called in sick for today, too. This is the "I don't remember" part. I seriously don't remember the last time I even took one sick day, let alone two.

I do feel better today. My chest still hurts from coughing, but a long bath helped the aching in my hips (caused, I'm pretty sure, by all the lying around) I didn't sleep well again last night, because I was worried about Ryan missing his 8 am meeting and not getting up in time to get the girls off to school/daycare. However, I woke Ryan up at 6:05, and he left in plenty of time for his meeting, and the girls all made it to the bus stop/daycare - we were even early for the bus. I told the sitter that I'm home today if she needed to send one of the girls home, but so far, so good. So since I came home from dropping them off, I have acccomplished the following:

-checked email, Facebook and the blogs I read
-finished my book
-had a cup of tea while watching a show I recorded last night
-had a long, hot bath (with a new book)
-spent three more hours in bed, most of that sleeping
-written this blog post

Now, because I actually feel a little bit hungry, I'm going to go downstairs and have some toast and tea. I am giving myself permission to do nothing but get better today - as far as my students are concerned, I've been off for the last three days. I still feel kind of fuzzy-headed, so I think more relaxing is in order. Also more water, and maybe some food.