If you've read the title of this post then you really don't need to read any further. I'm not going to say anything particularly amusing or insightful. It's been rough (but not exactly bad) and writing is cathartic for me. Hopefully I won't have more to add to this in coming days.....
My oh my! Let me provide a little timeline of the couple weeks:
Sunday night -- Stefanie has upset stomach
Monday -- Stefanie has upset stomach (It must have been something I ate since no one else got sick -- and I didn't actually "get sick" but felt really BLAH all day. Really too bad since it was our first and likely ONLY snow day this winter.)
Tuesday -- Timber has fever and cold symptoms (Happy Valentine's Day!)
Wednesday -- Stefanie wakes up with toothache. Scout and Timber have runny noses/coughs.
Thursday -- Toothache gets worse. Visit dentist #1. Flora has a fever.
Friday -- Toothache is horrible!! Dentist #1 is closed. Visit dentist #2. Dentist #2 doesn't do root canals in her office. Refer to endodontist. Cry. Get a root canal. Flora still has a fever.
Saturday -- Recovery from root canal is painful. Chris and Stefanie start exhibiting cold symptoms. Flora still has a fever.
Sunday -- Recovery from root canal is painful. Cold symptoms suck. Flora still has a fever.
Monday -- Hooray! Tooth is finally feeling much better! Hard to enjoy due to lack of sleep -- Flora was up all night with fever and coughing. Stefanie's cold is getting better.....Chris' cold is getting worse. Flora still has a fever.
Tuesday -- Take Flora to doctor: bronchitis. Get antibiotics. Come home to find Chris has set up two humidifiers in our bedroom. He chugs some NyQuil and heads back to bed as soon as I get home.
Wedneday & Thursday -- We all feel better with each passing day. Still cold symptoms for Chris, Stefanie, and Flora and still some lingering tooth pain for Stefanie but much better than this time last week.
Friday -- Chris is scheduled to get a vasectomy. The perfect way to cap off this crazy two weeks, right?!
Notes:
1. I have never felt as completely hopeless as I did when the endodontist's receptionist informed me that I was only scheduled for a consultation and would have to wait until Tuesday to schedule my root canal. It was like being in the final stages of labor and finding out that it would still be another few days before the baby would come. I'm not comparing my toothache to labor pains -- if I had to live with one for three days I would definitely choose the toothache -- but in the moment it seemed like the worse news I could possibly hear.
2. It was NOT the worse news I could possibly hear. It's so easy to get caught up in our own struggles and totally lose perspective. If my biggest problem this week is a root canal and sick kids then I have a pretty good life. A very good life. We are very, very blessed and it would be ungrateful and ridiculous to let one week of ill health make me think otherwise.
3. But my tooth hurt really badly and the thought of living with the pain for three more days was overwhelming. So.....I cried. I didn't intentionally cry to guilt the endodontist into staying late on a Friday to fix my tooth. Honestly. I don't think I can fake cry....maybe I can....I'll have to try it sometime -- but these were REAL tears. And they all felt sorry for me and stayed late to do my root canal. Of course, it wasn't completely out of the goodness of their hearts -- the dental assistant informed me that she was "on overtime pay as of five minutes ago" and had a martini waiting for her after work so she didn't mind staying at all. And also I was paying them a lot of money. Oh, and they usually leave the office at 2pm on Fridays so even staying "late" meant that they were still out of the office by 5pm. It was very nice of them to stay.....I'm just pointing out that there were more factors in play than just my tears.
4. Chris is awesome. I seriously couldn't function while my tooth was hurting and the pain medication I was given only slightly lessened the pain before the root canal. He brought a bunch of work home and worked in the living room while supervising the kids. He fixed lunches and wiped bums and broke up arguments. I helped out but it was hard to be around the kids because their high-pitched voices seemed to go in my ear and straight to my tooth. Weird, I know.
5. Chris was great with the kids but not so much the cleaning. The night of my root canal we sat on the couch and surveyed the disaster area that was our house. Sometimes I think I don't do anything during the day but after seeing what happens when I REALLY don't do anything for a few days I now know differently. But we laughed about the fact that we were so perfectly matched because such a messy house didn't bother either of us. I mean, it would bother me if it was like that all the time, but under the circumstances, it was nice that neither of us was freaking out about a messy house. We're both messy people at heart. And the next day, Chris and the kids did an awesome job of cleaning up the living room and kitchen.
6. For some reason, America's Funniest Home Videos was the only thing that could take my mind of the pain when my tooth was hurting. So when I look back on those foggy days, AFV is pretty the only thing I can remember doing. I watched it during the day and late at night when I was staying awake until I could take my next dose of medicine. The thought of watching it now is not very appealing. I may always associate AFV with pain.....bummer.
See? I told you this post wasn't worth reading. But I feel better now that I've written all of that out of my system!
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