WHAM!

That's the sound of me getting bulldozed by the Mac Truck of Sickness yet again! I don't understand it - I don't even have little kids & yet I seem to be sick a little too often for my comfort. I should have known it was coming b/c last week several people remarked to me that
I was looking very pale and had I been sick? Nope, but I was fixin' to be sick! Just didn't know it yet. It officially started Thursday morning when I woke up. I had a deep painful ache in my chest. One hot steamy shower later the ache was mostly gone so I shrugged it off & bolted out the door for a two-job (i.e. 14 hour day). I ended up driving almost all day for my full-time job. Every time I got in and out of the car I wondered why my legs were so super achy. And I just felt out of sorts. But I just dismissed it as tiredness & headed off for job #2. By now it's 3:30 p.m. & my armor is wearing thin. I got to job #2 & saw the schedule for the next week & started to cry b/c I was scheduled for 4 days. People, that is way more than I can handle! 51 hours a week is enough; 63 hours a week is too much! We are converting to a new computer system & so there are additional hours to cover training sessions, etc. What I didn't know at that point is that the schedule was open to adjustments. I think before the shift was over I had cried about 5 times. Not sobbing or anything, but definitely tearing up. At this point I didn't even feel all that bad - no fever, just achy & out of sorts. Mike & Beth were texting me Bible verses to encourage me - it was so sweet! I went straight home after work. Mike was there working on the kitchen. I took my temp. & it was starting to climb. He administered some rapid release tylenol, told me good bye & I went to bed. And that's where I stayed all day Friday. I wasn't any better on Saturday (actually a little worse) so I had to go to the urgent care clinic. They did a strep test, it came back positive, & they gave me a shot. I headed home, had a snack, went back to bed. I woke up a while later with a horrible stabbing pain in my right side that went up through the right side of my chest. I could hardly draw a shallow breath. I made about 8 phone calls, Mike got there & we finally just decided that maybe I was having a bout of pleurisy. I could breathe, it just hurt a lot. After a while it subsided but it took almost the whole rest of the day for it to go away completely. It was very frightening. So the rest of Saturday was spent mostly in bed. I was starting to feel like the grandparents in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Remember how they never got out of bed? Anyway, yesterday I still struggled some with fever but I felt well enough to go over to mom & dad's. They fed me & let me do all my laundry. Wow, it had been about 3 weeks since I had done laundry. I was grateful for my ginormous wardrobe (mostly accumulated when I was a mall employee & I could scope out the sale racks three times a week).

Anyway, thanks be to God I'm upright & at work today. However, I am taking the day off from job #2. I didn't think I could pull a 14-er today. Too much!

I just gotta say, if you are sick, my people are the ones to have around. Mike's momma is a sweetie. She sent me a pot of delicious homemade chicken noodle soup on Friday. Mike spent countless (I'm sure boring) hours with me. While I cried, while I slept, while I lay there like a slug. He worked on the kitchen, ran errands for me, & held my hand. What a sweetie! My parents were awesome, too. Checking in on me, taking me to the doctor, buying me McD's. The list goes on & on. I may not have been blessed with super good health lately, but I surely have enjoyed God's blessing in how I have been cared for.

Anybody out there have immunity boosting tips???