We're Sick

Half of us have strep throat.

I woke up Thursday morning with the left side of my throat hurting. I figured it was my sinus draining because I had my head turned that way or something and that it would right itself after I'd been up a while. By the time I was bringing the kids home from Anna's art show I realized it never went away, about the same time my eyes were feeling all heavy and sick and my shoulders and lower back were all achy. Oh, boy, (instead of darn or worse) as the kids and I would say. After flashing a light into my mouth I suspected the worse. So on Friday morning I hauled in the kids with me as I went for a doctor visit. Sure enough, I was positive for strep.

I asked the doctor to feel Alexander since at times over the past few days I thought he'd felt hot (though I could never get a temperature reading), plus he hadn't been eating well at all in the past few days. She gave him a quick once over and said he probably had strep, also. Red throat, swollen glands, "strawberry tongue." But she said to call his doctor for meds. Of course, his pediatrician wouldn't prescribe anything based on my diagnosis and what my doctor said about him, so after picking up my medicine I took both kids in to the pediatric clinic for their lab work. Alexander tested positive, but Anna tested negative. They'll grow her culture in the lab for two days to see if it develops into strep. Hopefully we can keep her healthy so she won't miss all her fun activities at school next week.

I don't know if I got it from Alexander or he got it from me. He could have picked it up at the nursery he was in during my MOPs (Mothers of Preschoolers) meeting on Tuesday. OR, I really want to blame it on Wal-Mart! I had to take him with me shopping there on Wednesday morning. The last time I had to go to W-M about a month ago I ended up vomiting six times later that night.

Anyway, this wasn't the first doctor's visit for me this week. On Wednesday I carted Alexander in with me to see an orthopedic specialist, who confirmed that last week I ruptured my calf muscle! I'd been flying down our stairs to check on Alexander and the dog and stepped the wrong way. Man that hurt. I didn't so much hear that popping sound they talk about when you tear a ligament or tendon, but I felt this flopping sensation inside my leg. It could have been worse. Thankfully it was only a partial tear. But it was bad enough for some terrible dark purple bruising all the way down to my ankle, as well as across the front of my leg. I couldn't walk on my foot at all the first day or so, but slowly I've been able to get around. The leg felt significantly better yesterday and I'm hoping to get back to the Y soon, though full recovery could take a month or so. Basically, they just said I could take prescription strength ibuprofen for the pain (the pain was waking me up at nights!), do stretching and activity as pain and swelling allows and that it would otherwise health itself.

All in all, I took a nap when the kids did three out of five times this week and didn't feel very productive around the house.