through the ringer we have gone. Or.....are going...

We introduced that plague of death into our house a few days back. It clearly hasn't killed any of us, but there have been times these past couple days that I have thought it would be easier to simply be dead than to have to endure the discomfort and pain this virus has presented to me. Elijah woke up from his nap time on Monday, walked out to where I was on Face book (imagine that!) and stated in a very matter-of-fact tone, "I watch movie, NOW!" He glared at me and stood, half awake as he stared me down. I chuckled a little and let him know that a movie wasn't on the agenda, but getting back in to bed was. He clearly had not had enough sleep. The hour or so following his nap I noticed abnormal behavior which culminated my confusion when he asked me if he could lay down on the kitchen floor. The floor is tile. I led him back into the living room and told him to hop up on the couch where he fell, exhausted, on to a pillow. I felt his forehead with my wrist and left to get a thermometer. 102.6. Oh man, here we go! I put my hand on parts of his body and said, "does this part hurt? We concluded that his tummy hurt, so I was preparing for vomiting, which has been absent thus far in the duration of this virus. I snuggled him in with juice and a movie and scolded myself for not picking up on the clues for the past hour of fussiness and lethargy. I gave him ibuprofen and kept about my work. Before bed that night I noticed I had a strange urge to cough, but I had to force myself to cough to relieve the feeling. The cough wasn't coming naturally. I thought nothing of it. I woke up Tuesday morning with a scratchiness in my throat and a sinking suspicion that this was no coincidence! Elijah seemed to improve throughout the day on Tuesday, which I was grateful for considering it was his birthday. My symptoms got worse throughout the day. I explained to my husband on the phone in mid morning that I "feel like I got hit by a truck!". If what I was feeling like then was the feeling of being hit by a truck, then the vehicle that hit me last night was march larger and more destructive! Every extremity ached. It didn't stop there, either. It felt as though I had been jamming the base of my skull on a hard service for some time. The pain in my knees resembled the pain that I experienced at the beginning of track season in middle school after my first practice on the hurdles. My elbows hurt, my wrists hurt, all my joints hurt. We got home from taking Elijah to eat at Chic-Fil-A (his all time favorite because of the airplane in the play place) and we still had an hour to kill before the kids bedtimes. I didn't know what to do with myself. I sat on the chair in our living room with Judah while Josh helped Elijah open his new birthday toys. I bounced Judah on my legs as he hummed. Josh looked over and said, "are you going to hold on to him, honey?". He was half way to my shins with only my hand on his torso keeping him in place. He didn't seem to mind so I just mumbled, "yeah" and closed me eyes again. I had turned the ceiling fan on because I felt overheated but soon after had Josh turn it off because the air it moved around hurt my skin when it blew by me and it was blowing my hair against my face. Even that hurt. We got the kids to bed and Josh packed up to go help a guy move furniture in to an apartment. I took an Excedrin PM, watched a movie for a bit and and went to bed when the P.M. portion of the medicine took effect. I woke up writhing in discomfort in the early morning and Josh brought me Tylenol. We woke this morning at 6am to Elijah standing at the foot of our bed with a blood soaked shirt and a red face and hands. This child picks his nose, incessantly! This isn't the first time he's given himself a bloody nose from picking, but is certainly trumped the others in blood volume lost. I was cleaning up a bit after putting the boys down for their naps this afternoon and found random blood splatters on the walls, around light switches, in the shower, and on rugs. That child is a bleeder for sure! It took Josh a good 15 minutes in the shower with Elijah to get the bleeding to stop. All the while I laid in bed fighting to gain full consciousness as I listened for any sign of Judah waking up. Elijah was wailing in the shower downstairs while Josh washed him. It had nothing to do with pain, since bloody noses don't really hurt, but everything to do with the fact that Elijah is terrified of blood! he panics and screams every time he given himself a bleed. I heard Judah wake at 6:15 and don't remember much in between when he woke up and when I brought him back to our bed to feed him at 6:30. Even nursing him hurt. He likes to pull on my shirt when he's nursing and I remember feeling like my skin under my shirt was going to peel right off if he kept pulling. We had to drive Josh in to the clinic because he left his car when we picked him up to go eat at Chic-Fil-A. I'm not sure how we made it back home without an accident. It was all I could do to keep my eyes open on the drive home. I stuck a movie on for Judah, continued to dab Elijah's nose every now and then with a cleanex and checked the clock every five minutes and desperate hope that it would skip forward to Judah's morning nap time. It arrived none-to-soon. After I put him to bed I put a movie on for Elijah and locked the front door. I told him to stay in the living room and that mommy was going to rest on the couch for a bit. I dosed in and out for an hour and a half or so. Maybe not the best idea but the only idea I felt I was capable of coming up with for the time being. He obeyed wonderfully. When I would jerk awake because it had been too quiet for too long I was comforted by the sight of him sitting on the rug with his legs crossed, quietly watching "Cars" and holding one of his new toys. Judah woke up earlier than usual from his nap but went down again an hour later for about 40 minutes. We toughed through the morning and sitting here I can honestly not remember all that much of it. Judah started getting uncharacteristically fussy before lunch time and I was disheartened to find that he's wince and cry with every touch on his skin. His hands and forehead felt warmer than usual. I didn't even bother checking his temp, I just gave him some Tylenol in the assumption that it was his turn now. I can honestly say that I'd rather take another couple days of this thing than have to watch him deal with it. It causes pain like few viruses I've had cause. I'm hungry as I haven't eaten much today, but it hurts my throat to eat so I've been avoiding it. Both Judah and Elijah woke up after an hour and a half nap. I gave Judah his pacifier and left him in bed. He fussed himself back to sleep. I came downstairs to find Elijah sitting on the rug holding a toy and staring in to the ground. I went to talk to him and his eyes were only half open. I told him he didn't have to get up just because he was awake. He stood up, walked toward the bedroom downstairs where he takes a nap all the while presenting a mild protest about how he didn't want to lay back down. I helped him on to the bed as he fussed at me, handed him his blankie and stuffed snake and left the room. He was asleep in less than a minute. I've been typing this since then. I'm sure this is completely scattered. I can say with certainty that my brain has not yet again reached full function and watching Elijah tells me it may be a couple days more until it does. Josh told me this morning that his throat was "pretty scratchy", so we'll see how he's feeling when he gets home. It's chicken and matzo soup for us tonight and early to bed with all of us.