The Impatient Patients

One year in school my room mates got sick. It was some sort of nasty and highly-contagious virus. I remember the symptoms were numerous and those poor girls were miserable. It fell to me to be their caregivers, since all of our mothers were far away. I took them to the doctors for their diagnosis, bought cans of lysol and a face mask to protect myself, cooked them meals and brought them juice, medicine, etc. They were so patient and would sign "yes" or "no" and always "thank you" because they had both lost their voices. It was a pleasure to serve them.

We've been sick almost constantly since Christmas ended: Coughs, colds, grouchiness, short naps, kids in our bed, etc. My kids aren't very happy sick patients, either. It hasn't been fun, and it's even worse when the parents are sick right along with the kids. During one of the small windows of wellness (Friday), I took Boo with me to Hogle Zoo to meet up with my friend Odette and her grand-nieces. Josh stayed home with a sick Yaks. We had a nice time briskly walking from exhibit to exhibit, only to see it closed off, the animals hiding, or a sign saying that the animal has been moved back to Louisiana. The highlight was riding on the "casserole". Boo actually rode on it by herself without me having to hold onto her!

Odette, Abby, Kayleigh and Boo


"I rode on the casserole and choosed the tiger!"

That happy day was short-lived, as she and I both seem to have come down with the same cold. Stuffy, runny nose, dry sinuses, headaches, etc. Last night after we spent 30 minutes looking for ZZ (I've never seen such a happy reunion it would have brought tears to my eyes if it had had some music and was set in slow motion), we tucked Boo in bed, only to hear her stuffy "sniff, SNIFF, SNIFF(cough), SNIFF." She'd cry out in frustration, saying things like, "Stop it, nose! Don't be stuff." We tried propping her head, applying some Baby Vick's Vapo Rub, but nothing but sheer exhaustion finally quieted her. Shortly after she fell asleep, Yaks (who has always been the world's worst sleeper, but has reached a whole new level of DIFFICULT lately), woke up yelling that his bink had a hole in it. I tried reasoning with him, telling him that it was the only one we had, offered desperate bribes like JUICE in BED, played the game of hide and seek with the binkie he would angrily throw across the dark room. Oh, it was fun! I highly recommend it sometime when you aren't feeling so great and it's 2 am. I finally threw on my pants and shoes and drove to Wal-Mart to buy binkies and orange juice. I know...we've got problems...and attachment issues...and addictions...and dental work. Now I wish I would have at least bought a box of powdered sugar donuts to drown out my own troubles!

I love Wal-Mart. I know not everyone does, but it's the only store open at such insane hours of the night, which carry every item needed at such a desperate times. There are some interesting characters who come out that time of the night - myself among them. After the one-armed man kindly rang up my stuff, and I looked him straight in the eye and said, "Thank you SO much for working tonight." He said, "Well, that's my pleasure, ma'am. Did you find everything okay?" I gratefully smiled and nodded and then drove home, delivered the goods to my "patient", and crawled back into bed.

We're home from church today (obviously), so I'm off to prepare some sort of a Primary lesson so that it at least feels like a Sunday and not another day in the Sick Bay.