Sad times for the Mullins family...

OK, so it's not that bad, but still fairly lame. I picked up a virus two weeks ago that really knocked me out. Then once I started feeling just a little better, Amelia started getting sick. Last weekend I powered through a massage course and then played nurse to Amelia. She got very sick. One night in particular, she had a really high fever (I couldn't find the thermometer to quantify, but it was probably about 105) and was actually hallucinating. I don't like to give her tylenol routinely, but even after a dose her fever didn't go down for several hours. She's been staying home from school since Wednesday and is still not feeling so hot.

I started getting sick again Friday, and by the night time had a raging earache. I have had an ear infection or two in the past, but the level of pain in this one was off the charts. We ended up going to the ER that night since I just couldn't stop crying --I like to think I have a high pain tolerance, but this certainly brought me to my knees. At the ER they said they found an angry eardrum and said they couldn't do much for me at the moment-- decongestant, antibiotics, and, after I asked, pain meds. By this time it was 12:30 a.m., and we had to get the prescription filled. Luck would have it that the pharmacy we went to was running behind and we had a 40 minute wait before the Rx could be filled. My awesome neighbor friend had come over with her baby to stay at our place so Amelia could sleep while we were gone, so Jeff brought me home to relieve her, then went out to get the meds. Those helped me relax, but didn't really take care of the pain, so I didn't sleep that night. Then, I had a reaction to the pain pills that resulted in some episodes of vomitting in the morning-- perfect! I started taking a good dose of Advil and finally had the presence of mind to do a hot compress, which made the pain more manageable.

My naturopathic doctor is wonderful, and had an appt. available for me at noon. When she looked in my ear, she just kept saying "Oh dear. Oh no. Oh dear." When pressed for more descriptors, she said that I have something like a strep infection on my eardrum, that it had lots of little blisters all over it. I looked up the name of the condition and it was described as "exquisitely painful." Yes. Also something called glue ear-- fluid stuck behind my eardrum, kind of holding the eardrum back there-- not especially painful, but it makes it feel and sound like my ear is plugged, and can take a long time to resolve. She was very sympathetic and helpful, and had some good recommendations. I actually spent an hour and a half with her!

So, that was yesterday. Since then, the pain has gotten much better. And now Jeff is coughing. Amelia is still recovering, I am trying to catch up on sleep and kick this thing. We're a fun group to be around! In general, we don't catch a lot of colds and viruses. Amelia has never had an ear infection and is rarely sick. But it seems like we get all the crazy stuff-- Amelia was only sick twice last year, and both times it was with hand, foot and mouth disease. Last fall we went to the ER for Jeff. And I have stuff happen like this and broken-ribs-from-coughing-with-pneumonia-while-pregnant. Come on! At least we've had a long weekend to be miserable in, and I'm hoping for a more normal week ahead. I guess all of those projects I had planned out will just have to wait. And maybe we'll even be able to see people in a week or two...