Monday, February 19, 2018

It has been quite the miserable weekend. I have mentioned that I have not felt great the last few weeks. It all started when my girls got sick and I although I did not feel terrible, I was just not feeling right. I was coughing and had some sinus stuff. I only ran a low grade temperature on the weekends, but even then didn't feel terrible. I just tried to get some rest the last few weekends and pray whatever cold I had would work itself out. Wednesday night I was starting to feel a little bit worse. My cough seemed to be worse and I was just really worn down. I kind of played it off because Valentine's Day was a little more active with the party. Jeremy asked if I needed to stay home on Thursday, but I couldn't miss the 100th Day of School! I woke up really early on Thursday because sometime in the night my teacher brain came up with a fun game to play for our ice cream party so I had to get up and find all the materials to make the game. I was not feeling great. My cough was worse and I was blowing my nose like crazy, my throat was hurting a little, but still no fever. I went to school and we had a wonderful 100th Day! The class loved our ice party and it was a good day. I had called the office earlier that morning to see if I had any days left to take off for Friday. I then decided that I would not take off but I would let my assistant take the lead on Friday and I would just help her. It seemed the more I had to talk the worse my cough and my throat got. The class goes down for rest time at 1:30 every day, so we got them all ready for rest time and I sat down in my chair to do some work and something bad swept over my body. I told my assistant that I needed to go to the office and have my temperature checked. Which is weird, I don't think I have ever done that before. I went to the office and my temp was 100.1, which is high for me. Apparently I looked white as a ghost and the principal sent me straight home and maybe the first time ever I did not try to argue with him about going/staying home. I came home took some medicine and went to bed. I slept until my family came home after 5:00. I felt really bad. I had a restless night Thursday night. Getting up several times to blow my nose, take more medicine, get a drink, and try to gargle to help my throat feel better. I woke up Friday to get the girls up. Samuel was shadowing at a high school on Friday so Jeremy had already taken him. I felt terrible. Worst I have felt in a long time. The girls got off to school and I went back to bed, but everything I was trying to get some relief was not working. My pain tolerance is pretty high, but this was more that I could bear. I know we do not have insurance, but I had to go to the walk in clinic. I was so torn because I was so worried that I would pay a bunch of money for them to tell me I had a virus. I hadn't had strep in like 8 years, but 4 years ago I fought this battle of feeling like I had strep every few weeks. I would have all of the symptoms, plus a swollen gland in the back of my neck, but every time I went to the doctor the strep would be negative and so there was nothing they could do. I dealt with this for almost three years! So, I was so torn about going but I had to do something.

I went to the doctor and the strep test came back positive. The doctor said I had a bad case of strep. She was also concerned because my heart rate was kind of high. Of course as she is talking to me about my high heart rate it only continues to rise. She knew that some of it was due to my fever and the pain I was clearly in. I did explain to her my anxiety of doctors and that I was worried about paying to come and not getting any relief (medicine). As I sat there though I had to hold back all the other reasons why my heart rate could be high. No insurance, how much was this all going to cost, my husband is going to be without a job soon, ,my baby boy is shadowing a high school today, and today was Emma's Gotcha Day and I was in no shape to help her celebrate. I didn't spill all my issues, but by the time I was ready to leave and now that I knew I was getting medicine and that the doctor was giving me a nice coupon for my medicine my heart rate had gone down some. I was put on strict orders to rest and no more caffeine for 48 hours. I went to the closest store to fill my prescription and I forgot how miserable it is waiting those 20-25 minutes for your medicine. I got some caffeine free drinks, some Jell-O, and I have gotten myself in trouble by picking up some new ice cream. When anybody asks my favorite ice cream I know what I will say. I checked out and was ready to get my medicine. I took my first dose and then went back to bed. I was pretty confident that I would wake up feeling some better, but I was wrong. The doctor did warn me that my strep was bad and apparently when you are over 40 strep is so much harder on your body. I felt a little better on Saturday, but I really did not start to feel good until yesterday afternoon. I am so thankful that today is a school holiday. I need to get so much done since I have neglected my house for the last two weeks. Now the trick is to not over do it.

Friday was Emma's 10th Gotcha Day! She was so sweet Friday morning because she knew I was miserable. I had gotten the ingredients to make her favorite meal but she told me that I needed to wait until I felt better. I could barely talk my throat hurt so bad, so I agreed that we would make it another night. I ended up making it Saturday because my chicken was about to go bad 😖. We are so thankful that God chose us to be Emma's parents. There are back stories attached to my girl's stories that I will never be able to share in public or write about. Other circumstances that could of changed everything. Circumstances that we look back on and know without a doubt that God wanted us to be their parents. I love looking back on the pictures of Emma's arrival. Even in a post 9/11 day, the airport gave clearance for our parents, Samuel, and our photographer to meet us at the gate as we came off of the airplane. It was a beautiful sight! We were even more blown away as there were so many other family members and friends waiting for us, rejoicing with us at Emma's arrival. My kids did not receive that kind of celebration when they entered this world, but they sure got it when they came home!