Dead Like Me

Published on Saturday, February 26, 2011 by Katherine

23 Comments ↓

Last Friday:

• Daughter starts with a cough, leading to a temperature over 101 that remains for 3 days, despite Tylenol.

Monday:

• Middle son starts a cough.  The fever follows within hours.  Child number two down.
• I start to cough.  Then comes the fever.
• Cough all night.
• Miss work.  Oh NO.

Tuesday:

• Prostrate on the couch. Three of us.  Ugh.
• Hallucinating, I fix my daughter’s lunch for the next day and get her uniform together.
• Cough all night.
• Miss work.  Oh NO.

Wednesday:

• Hallucinating still, with a continued fever, I drive my daughter to school.  Repeat each day.  Fever, shaking, dizzy, driving.  Good times.
• My mother does pick- ups and brings me Dunkin’ Donuts iced coffee each day.  She is my savior.
• Cough all night.
• Miss work.  Oh NO.

Thursday:

• Fever so bad I am shaking in bed.  Drive with fever to the doctor.  I have the flu, despite my flu shot.  Of course.
• Mother takes son to doctor.  Nebulizers prescribed.  Did I mention my mother is my savior?
• When will this fever end?!  Can you overdose on Tylenol, aspirin and Motrin?  Because I’m eating the stuff like candy.
• By Thursday night I know I am suffering from yet another sinus infection paired with the flu.  Oh YEA.
• Cough all night.
• Miss work.  Oh NO.

Friday:

• Middle son goes back to school.
• Daughter stays home, AGAIN.
• Oldest son wakes up and reports, “Mom, I feel HORRIBLE.”  Oldest stays home.
• Miss work.  Oh NO.
• I call my doctor in tears.  “I have a sinus infection.  I NEED an antibiotic. “ Cry some more.  What does the sun look like?  I’ve forgotten.
• Doctor calls in prescription.  I cry over that.  Funny how shaking with a fever for five days makes you a tiny bit emotional.
• Pick up son and prescription, hallucinating, with a fever.  Consider chugging entire bottle and washing it down with a shot of Jack Daniels.  Realize this is a.) not healthy and b.) I don’t have any Jack Daniels.

Can you get the flu after getting a flu shot?  Oh YEA you can.  Only my family would catch the flu that was NOT included in the shot.  We are good like that.

Today is Saturday and my throat is on fire, my head is spinning and two of my kids are still asleep at 11:24.  I cleaned up the kitchen counter and sat back down when the world started spinning.  Is there an end to this, because I certainly do not see it.

The only thing, other than my mother, that has saved me this week is my neighbor’s video collection.  The beginning of the week had a disaster theme.  The new Poseidon, A Perfect Storm, Twister and a movie about an epidemic.  The end was my favorite – a box collection of Dead Like Me.

I don’t have cable, so Dead Like Me was brand new.  And I am officially hooked.  How this series ended after only two seasons when shows like Cougar Town continue, I will never know.  With the F-Bomb flying continuously, I can’t watch it with my daughter in the house.  But the times she’s been with friends I have indulged in this quirky and addicting series.  Did any of you watch it?

So here I am, weak, still shaking and trying to breathe through cotton stuffed in a raw, red throat.  Watching Dead Like Me.  And hoping no one else is out there with the flu, feeling dead like me.