Flu Away

I’m on day eight of the flu. I was just about to skip posting this week as all my energy is saved to care for my four year old, Lanes, who might or might not have passed the virus onto me.  Any old how, Lanes and her (relatively) self-sufficient dad, P, are rather enjoying my inability to micromanage and launch into lectures.

The week was long, but I squeezed in one day of fun in there! I just had enough strength to give Lanes food and keep her clean. Asides from that, I let her do as she pleased—which included a lot of running around our apartment with her super hero cape, slamming tunelessly on her little toy organ and lots of cutting and pasting for some sort of arts and crafts activities that I have no recollection of.

Her musical interludes were her futile attempts to keep me conscious.  Realizing that nothing was going to make me jump off the couch, she resorted  to petting my face and putting blankets on me saying ‘this will make you feel you better, Mamma’. From time to time, she would would plunk down on the couch with me, invariably kneeing the exact part of my hips or legs or lungs that was aching. Is this what 'tough love' means? All I know is if she refuses to go to college, she will have a bright future in wrestling.

I was blessing whoever invented preschool—must have been a woman—that I got some time to myself during the day, but as luck would have it, Friday was a holiday.  I thought it would be a nightmare because Lanes would be bored at home, but she was surprisingly ok.  She spent the day dragging her toy food to the living room and making ‘soups’ for me.  In between my coughing fits and bouts of sneezing, a toy carrot would be shoved unceremoniously into my mouth, and she genuinely wondered why I wasn’t feeling better after her home remedies.

Today, the coughing and sneezing has stopped at least but I still feel like a camel is sitting on my chest. The only good news is that for the first time in eight days I didn’t wake up with my throat and the roof of my mouth on fire. Also, last night I didn't wake up at some point thinking the earth was moving. For the four nights in a row, I woke up about to yell at P for shaking the bed or warning him that I felt tremors on the ground, only to realize that I was alone on a couch and shivering.

However, with the congestion and tightness in my throat and chest still present, it looks like Lanes and P will be speech free for the rest of today too. It’s been really tough on me not making sarcastic comments or issuing decrees in this state.

On a brighter note, on Saturday, P got to enjoy one of his first perks as being officially employed! He got to take us to Telus World of Science for free! Even though I felt like I was about to pass out any minute, I dragged myself out because there was no way I was going to miss out on the fun. Also, part of me wondered if my apartment was making me sick—I did feel better outside.

Lanes loves to be scared and she was delighted when she saw moving, growling, clawing dinosaurs! She got a thrill each time one blinked and bore his teeth and waved his sharp ‘claws’ menacingly. Then there was another section where we could go and pet snakes and various lizards.

I was surprised because Lanes and I got right up there and were really into it. P was a lighter shade of pale because he is terrified of snakes. I don’t know if it was the flu numbing my senses or what but until I felt P whacking me hard on my back to get me to move away from a snake that was an inch away from my ear, I didn’t think to be scared. He was fearfully eyeing some woman who was walking around with a snake around her neck. She had the uncanny ability to cross our path nonstop.

I saw beads of sweat forming on P's face and he quickly fled after that so Lanes and I followed. I was glad Lanes was not squeamish over those things but she got distracted by a Lego land type area.  I regretted not touching any of the lizards or snakes. But then again I didn’t want to touch anything anywhere in case I was spreading germs--I heard somewhere that you can make animals sick. Plus I could hear my germaphobic nutty sister’s voice in my head ‘lizards carry salmonella’.  I don't even know if that's true.

While Lanes and P were happy building a tower or something out of Lego, I got distracted by another big room full of fun science type things.  There was one area where you could stuff tiny yellow Styrofoam-ish balls into a chute and then it would fly through various tubes on a wall and fly out the top.

The balls would hit people, young and old alike, but it was ok seeing as they were so light.  When I coaxed Lanes and P into that room, they really enjoyed trying it out. When we got home and I took my coat off, I found one of those balls on the floor of our apartment. I was dismayed!

At first I didn’t realize what happened and accused poor Lanes of bringing a ball back, and with big eyes full of earnest she said she didn’t and it fell out of the hood of my jacket, a point which P quickly confirmed. I looked horrified--both at falsely accusing my offspring and the thought that I unwittingly brought the ball back.


Now the tables were turned, but Lanes just told me ‘it’s ok, it was an accident. You didn’t mean to take it. We will take it back to the place, and they will say it’s ok, alright Mamma. Don’t worry about it’. Nice. 

Any old how, I felt sicker when we got home, but I was glad to get out and have fun with the family. I really still feel rather drained of energy but after having run out of food and not wanting to have to order pizza, I made P his favorite dish, moussaka, and Lanes her favorite, mac and cheese.  I have no sense of smell or taste, so I just nibbled on both.

Now I must go and figure out tonight’s dinner and try to squeeze in a nap before Lanes materializes from school. I think she needs her feisty mom back, poor child. Too bad my nutty sister doesn’t live close by. I sure wish someone would show up with a half a chicken or something and spare me the trouble! Below is a picture of Telus Science World and one of the activities there.  More musings from BC next week…