Two weeks ago today I was busy doing laundry and gathering all the materials I was going to need for my work trip to Austin, TX.  My coworker and I were traveling with several students and faculty from our STEM programs to the AAAS Conference (American Association for the Advancement of Science).  The students were all scheduled to present as were all of the “adults” in the group.  My coworker and I were presenting a poster on “Modification of the Student Support Structures to Close the Achievement Gap” with one of the Math faculty members.  The AAAS conference and our time in Austin was amazing.  We even got to attend a session where Joe Biden, former Vice President of the United States, spoke.  I returned last Monday and thought about all the work I was getting ready to walk into the next day.

Tuesday morning I woke up early, went for my morning run, and was greeted at the top of the stairs by a coughing Kane.  Usually he is wide-eyed and bushy-tailed, all ready to start his day.  But on this particular morning he sadly asked me if he really needed to go to school.  I felt his forehead while I gave him a hug and decided to take his temperature.  He had a low grade fever so I called his doctor.  The nurse on call suggested we get him in as soon as possible just in case (his immune system is already compromised by the Crohn’s).  We went to his appt. and the doctor didn’t want to take any chances and planned to treat him with Tamiflu.  She did tell us he could return to school once he had been fever free for 24 hours and didn’t have any other symptoms.  

Fast forward to Friday that week.  Kane is all better now and back to school.  I wake up and feel kinda terrible.  My head feels like it is about to explode any minute.  I drop K2 off at their respective places and go on my normal, Friday Dunkin’ Donuts run for my SSR coworkers.  I get to work and think to myself “there is NO WAY I am going to be able to make it through the day let alone another hour.  I feel like crap.”  But I go through a few emails, eat my egg white breakfast, and realize my face hurts.  Literally, every bite I take my face hurts more. I decide I am outta here and going home to bed.  And that is exactly what I did.  

Luckily I already had a doctor appt. scheduled for later that day.  I go home and slept until 2pm.  If you really know me I don’t normally do naps.. at all.  But nap I did Friday.. I went to my doctor appt, got the flu test swab, and was sent on my way with Tamiflu.  I picked up K2, fed them dinner, and then slept until Sunday.  

Have you even been swabbed before for the flu test?  It SUCKS!  It was my first time ever (if it happened before Mom, I definitely have suppressed that horrific moment from my memory) and I pray to God it is the last time.  Sunday (yesterday) comes and I start to feel somewhat human again – this is a new kind of human for me since I have been asleep since Friday night!  Anyway, I get up, shower, clean up the house a little, make the kids’ lunches for the week along with my breakfast, and try to catch up on everything I have missed for the past two days.  I go downstairs to talk to K2 about dinner and Kailee has pink cheeks.. and this time it isn’t because she put too much blush on.  I take her temperature and it is 102!  DAMMIT!  Kevin and I negotiate who is staying home now tomorrow and possibly longer, depending on Kailee’s symptoms Monday.  I pick Monday and he picks Tuesday.

Kailee wakes up today still with a fever and so I call the doctor and we head back in.  The doctor looks at me once we are in Kailee’s room and says “Welcome back.”  Although I know she was being funny I wasn’t really laughing.  Lucky for me (or her) she couldn’t see my resting bitch face because I was wearing a mask.  Yep, that was me wearing one of those masks people wear out in public that others make fun of.. I know why I was wearing it so no one freak out at me or think I am complaining about wearing the mask.  I am complaining about how unsexy these masks look!  Anyway, back to Kailee.. they check her for strep, acknowledge her fever, and decide to send the final person standing in our house home with Tamiflu.  I did forget to mention that Kevin called his doctor Friday once Kane and I were both on Tamiflu and they were very happy to give him some too.

Tomorrow is Tuesday and I will be heading back to work to see what to tackle first.  Honestly, I am a little excited to get out of my house too!

By the way, remember how I wrote before about Team Challenge, the Rock ‘N Roll Marathon run in New Orleans (#RunNOLA) I signed up for to run for Kane and the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation???  Yeah well that race is Sunday.. six days from now…  

When I put Kane to bed tonight I told him I knew I probably wouldn’t do as well as I had trained since I will be recovering from the flu.  He simply looked at me and said, “that’s ok Mom, just don’t give up.”  

Kane:  I don’t plan to give up; I plan to put one foot in front of the other and do the best I can do.