Not even two days after pops had passed away; Mitch was sick as a dog, body aches, fever and just miserable.  I felt for him and I tried my best to give him attention and care, but honestly I was in a such a daze of my own I wasn’t much help. I was taking care of all the things one must do after a death and was just trying to come to terms with losing pops.

Pops service was super special, just like him

Two days later and I was experiencing first hand the misery of Mitch’s sickness!  The aches were awful, the fever and chills, just debilitating!  It was horrible and all I wanted to do was sleep, but I figured I’d just take some Tylenol, pull up my boots and go to work.  Three days later and I still wasn’t feeling any better.  Mitch was on the mend after day three, so I figured I needed to just wait it out. Finally after 5 days of having a fever I gave in and decided I needed to go to the doctor.  The reason for having a fever for so long, an ear infection and probably some kind of virus, maybe the flu.  They wouldn’t be able to know for sure if it was the flu unless they did a flu test, and asked if I wanted to be tested.  I said, “sure why not, I’d like to know if we really did have the flu.”  The doctor said, “well, you’re probably not going to like the test though, they need to swab your nose.”  I thought to myself, ok, no big deal, I’ve put q-tips in my nose before; and then he came in with it.  It was thin, and long… way too long for just going up my nose, and they had to put it waaaaayy up there, like 5 inches up my nose!  I asked if he could just do one nostril and that was a big fat no, it had to be both. I decided to take one for the team and just go for it.  He had me tip my head back, and ugh, the burning and stinging and instant pain was shocking, and then he was done with one.  Phew, ok I can do this… I shake off the feeling and get ready for the other side, it wasn’t as bad, maybe because I knew what was coming, but eeeekkks the burning in the back of my head.  Wow, it seriously sucked!  Thankfully it was over and we were going to be on our way to get antibiotics and the doctor said they’d call if the results came back as the flu.   Suddenly I felt warm, really warm, then super hot, burning up, so I take off my sweater and I think I might get sick, oh wait everything is getting dark and muffled in my ears. Mitch looks at me and says, “are you ok? you look so pale? are you going to pass out?” my whole body leans to the left and I can’t shake the feeling, I …am….about….to…….faint. So I let go and just melt onto Mitch while I try to come back into reality.   Finally, things begin returning to focus and I need water, water, I need water.  I go over to the sink, put my head under the faucet and drink as if I’d been walking in the desert for days.  Phew, now that was crazy.  I almost pass out from getting a flu test. ha! I’m such a silly girl.

all turned upside down

I got a call the next morning from the doctor and yes, it was the flu.

There’s a name for our experience, it’s called “the let-down effect”, and basically once you make it through a really stressful time in life your body comes down from all the stress and pressure and then you get sick. There are studies about this phenomenon but I think the good Lord knows that during hard times its just too much to get sick, so he helps you wait till you have time and can handle it.

Then I got this weird circle spot on my chin!

I put PRID on it, and it stopped the itching and seemed to help it heal

First I thought it was a spider bite, then someone said maybe it’s from the stress, someone else thought it could be from my ear infection or an allergic reaction….but when someone mentioned it could be the possibility of RING WORM, it was time to go back to the doctor.  She said my ear infection was gone and it’s not ring worm, she thinks it was probably a spider bite. So now it’s been three weeks, we both still have a cough, but everyday we are getting a little better, physically and emotionally. Healing takes time, and we aren’t rushing ourselves to be better. We’re just learning to live again, so we go into each day with love and acceptance of life as it is now.