Sickness

The last couple of weeks have been a little rough for us. Mostly for me. I started to develop a sinus infection which rapidly got really bad. On the third day of massive head and facial pain, I didn't stay on top of my ibuprofen (I was taking 200 mg every 4 hours, and for the most part, that took enough of the edge off so that I could stay functional). I tossed and turned for a few hours until the pain got so bad that I could no longer sleep. It was 3:30 am and I decided it was high time I get some more ibuprofen in my system. The whole left side of my face throbbed and it was all I could do to take the meds and sit in bed to wait it out. I played solitaire and listened to conference talks until 5:00 am, when I finally had enough relief to be able to lay my head down on my pillow long enough to fall asleep. Needless to say, the next day was really hard. I felt awful. Jeff asked me what my plans for the day were, and I told him, "try not to die." It was bad.

And while I learned how to mostly manage the pain so that I could take care of my family, it wasn't getting better very quickly. Despite the sinus rinses I was doing every few hours, the congestion got pretty bad, and I was flushing some really nasty stuff out. And my brother in law offered to prescribe some antibiotics, but also told me that most sinus infections are viral anyway, so I decided to wait it out.

Then the coughing started. You know the kind--where you have to get up in the middle of the sacrament and go get a drink because you know you are about to make a fool of yourself if you stay much longer. Yeah, that's what happened to me. I was hacking all day (and night) long and still dealing with a lot of pain in my head.

For 10 days this went on, and the pressure in my sinuses did let up a little. But I was still rinsing out nasty mucus every few hours, and I couldn't skip any of the ibuprofen I had been taking, or I would pay for it big time. That's when I decided it was time to start the antibiotics. And finally, things started to really get better. Now, it's been 18 days since I really started feeling terrible, and I'm almost done with the antibiotics. I'm about 90% better. The congestion is almost all gone, and I don't have to take any meds at all for pain, although I always have a tiny headache (around my teeth as well) lingering. Thank heavens this is ending, and I'm so grateful my kids were so healthy throughout the worst illness I have had in a long, long time.

I often didn't have the strength to care about what the kids were up to, as long as they weren't causing trouble. This is one of the things they did to pass the time:

While we're at it, here are a couple other pictures I managed to take from this dark period of my life. This is what Carter and McKay chose to eat for lunch one day. It was so funny, I had to document it. Tuna, pinto beans, olives, cucumbers, cheese and carrots.

We also had a family fun day at Lowe's Xtreme Air Sports, and I took some fun slo mo videos. Here are a few pics. Allie climbing the wall.

Cool action shot from a video clip

Finally, Damon and Jack in front of their World's Fair project on Switzerland. We had a lot of fun sampling food from around the world, and the kids got full enough that they didn't need dinner. 

Here's to better health from here on out!