Our December

Our December has been a bit atypical. While it started out with some fun Christmas traditions, it made a sharp turn in a different direction a few weeks ago. Mike was the first to come home with the flu, knocking him out for a couple of days. Max quickly followed suit, and before long miss Alexis had come down with the same symptoms. Unlike the first two that seemed to begin recovery after the first couple days, her fever kept up, which resulted in a Dr. appt. and diagnosed ear infection. A prescription of antibiotic and she was back to her cute, happy self in no time.

Then it was my turn. But, instead of following suit with the rest of the family, my symptoms didn't really recover. In fact, over the course of a week, I just kept feeling worse. When it was to the point where I hadn't kept anything down in over a day, feeling completely dehydrated, and the chills kept getting worse, we made a trip to the local instacare (conveniently located inside the new Riverton hospital).

Tests made and the diagnosis. H1N1 + Pneumonia. IV Fluids, antibiotics and lost of rest. Unfortunately, it took two more trips back for more fluids and antibiotics before by body began to respond to anything.

All in all, I was pretty sick. Sicker than I've ever felt in my life. I now understand how people die from flu like symptoms and/or pneumonia. I had both this past week and have never felt so miserable.

But the important part is that I am feeling better every day. This combo has knocked me off my regular status of "productive Sara" and it's been teaching me how to slow down. While the energy levels will take some time to come back (I won't be running into the gym to teach my classes this next week!), I'm so happy to feel a little more like Sara again.

Another plus, we met a new neighbor. My doctor actually happens to live a couple streets over and was awesome. He even stopped by on his day off to make sure I was keeping fluids down on my own.

Our family combo of illness resulted in missing most of all of our holiday parties and festivities, but for me, I was able to receive a big blessing of service. I'm so grateful for our families and neighbors who stepped up with watching the kids, delivering dinners and running errands so I could focus on recovering. I'm so thankful for Mike who took two days off of work, took over all of the household work, and cleaned/sanitized our entire house so we wouldn't get a repeat of this ugly bug. And, when it all comes down to it, that really is the true meaning and spirit of the holiday. So, thanks for letting me receive some of it.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas holiday.