NOT the Swine Flu

These days, all sickness we as a family encounter is labeled in one of two ways:

A. The swine flu

or

B. NOT the swine flu.

Today Josiah is sick with something that, so far, has been diagnosed as NOT the swine flu. He had a headache yesterday during the late afternoon, but that's not terribly unusual for him so I simply gave him a little pain medicine and didn't think much of it. But when he woke up this morning and asked me to take his temperature because he thought he had a fever, I suddenly started to pay attention a little more closely. This morning, his temperature was 100.9; and it traveled up and down throughout the day. The last time we checked, it was all the way up to 102.5; and Josiah was continuing to complain of a headache and bone aches, not surprising considering how high his temperature was. I gave him Ibuprofen and Tylenol in alternating doses today; and as long as he had the medicine in his system, he perked up and seemed to feel better. As soon as the medicine wore off, he was back to feeling poorly which made me very glad that we live in this day and age when medicines are so readily available to comfort and assist in healing!

Our favorite doctor (my dad) said that, since Josiah doesn't have a cough, it's probably NOT the swine flu, but rather some other virus that's floating around. I'm not worried about Josiah, and honestly he was a pretty easy patient today; but my thoughts do jump ahead a little as I wonder how many other members of the family are going to come down with this and how many more days of sickness we have to look forward to before this particular bug wears itself out in our household. Without much scientific basis, I do hope that if Shav is going to get sick, I get sick first so that I'll be able to pass some immunity along to him before he gets hit hard. He's the only one of our family that I'm mildly concerned about. He's still so little!

Day 6 - As I was reading Farmer Boy to Josiah this afternoon to help the time pass and keep his mind off his ailments, I was reminded of the hours and hours that my mother read to us when we were sick. I particularly remember this when we had chicken pox--all four of us children at the same time, of course. Wasn't that fun for my mom to deal with?! I may have written about this before in this blog, but I can't remember for sure so at the risk of repeating myself, I'll go ahead and tell about my chicken pox experience. I was three years old at the time; and I caught it first, then passed it along to all my siblings, just like a sweet, loving, sharing girl should do. :) My sister, who was 13 at the time, had it the worst, so since she was the oldest and was suffering the most, she got the place of honor on the couch. My brothers and I each had a sleeping bag on the floor, lined up with our heads close to the wall. Along the wall was a baseboard heater which made a perfect track for the Matchbox cars we raced as we lay in our sleeping bags. Mother, meanwhile, was sitting in a rocking chair, rocking back and forth and reading and reading and reading. I don't remember what she read; but the combination of being read to, playing with my brothers, and having the adventure of being in a sleeping bag in the living room, all combined to make the experience a joyful one for me. I don't remember a bit of pain or itchiness or any kind of discomfort. As I look back, I only remember the fun!

I'm thankful for my dad's medical expertise, my mother's willingness to read aloud, the chance to extend that same loving concern to my son, sleeping bags, Matchbox cars, and this happy memory.