Ramblings from a Sick Mom: When Bronchitis Strikes and Takes You Down

Beware: ramblings of a sick mom ahead. I blame the meds.

I don’t get sick a lot. I get one good cold or something a year, but this season has been the exception. I’ve had two minor colds  and on Monday, I started feeling like I was getting another. I was in denial, trying to go on about business as usual, but by nighttime, the coughing was increasing and I knew I may be fighting a losing battle. I went to bed, where I coughed all night long. Allergies, right? The husband was already sick, but I didn’t feel like I had any symptoms of what he has.

But….BOOM. <Envision your hands in the air like War Machine does it in the Iron Man movies. You can watch that clip here on YouTube.>

Reality hit when I woke up and could barely lift my head off the pillow. OMG kill me now. Yeah, that’s dramatic, but let’s be real, so is how I felt. Ask anyone who knows me and they’ll tell you, I’m not the kind who posts on Facebook when I don’t feel well. I don’t go on and on about my health. But the way I felt on Tuesday morning was enough to make me want to post on Facebook asking for someone to come hold my eyelids open so I could text my husband to let him know I had the plague.

I didn’t do it.

I did, however, text the husband. There may have been expletives. I had to hit the backspace button so many times, it took me what felt like five minutes to get two sentences out. No lie, it probably took me a good minute. My eyes were bleary, my head was pounding and every bone and joint in my body felt like I had run ten miles and then jumped off a second-story building with my legs straight. (I’ve never done that, and I hope never to have to, but seriously, I’m pretty sure that’s what it feels like.) HOW IS MY PHONE THIS HEAVY?

Tuesday was a haze. I popped Ibuprofen a few times, watched a lot of TV, and mindlessly scrolled through Facebook. Best part of the day though? Having food delivered from Vons. I’ve never used their InstaCart service before, where you literally do your shopping online, even produce, pay for it and boom, within two hours, your food comes. Vons also has other delivery options, but I really only was looking for one thing: Soup. NOW.

$58 later, ten cans of soup, a few bottles of kombucha and two big pieces of fresh ginger were on the way. Margarita, my personal shopper, (wow, who’d have ever thought I could say that??) texted me once to let me know my Pink Lady flavor of Health-Ade kombucha were unavailable, so I had the option to choose new flavors. Simple, fast and I was even able to text her a note, which in this case was more important than any other delivery instructions I could give her: put the bags on the mat, ring the bell, and run away fast. Don’t look back. Don’t wait for me to answer. Just go. And thank you so much, Margarita! She wished me well and my order was spot-on perfect. I enjoyed soup for lunch, soup for dinner, and that’s how it continued the next day as well.

The husband went to the doctor yesterday. He is on antibiotics. I gave in and called Kaiser this morning for a phone-in appointment. I cannot praise this option and Kaiser enough! They had an opening immediately, so within 15 minutes, I had prescriptions called in for me and the husband picked them up on his way home from work. I know it’s probably in my head, but I swear I felt a little better an hour post-steroids. Miracle stuff, I swear. I don’t like to take medicines, but I have a busy weekend ahead. I have a cool day planned on a Valentine’s Day campaign, we have a Valentine’s day party Saturday night with dear friends and on Sunday, we’re having a very belated Christmas celebration over brunch.

I also have like six posts due next week.

No pressure, right?

I will make it happen, I never am late on a deadline so it will all come together, but once I get better, I’m going to be working on immune-boosting. Bronchitis has to leave and leave forever. (I used to have asthma, and apparently that increases your chances of getting bronchitis so in reality, I will get it again some time but geez Louise, I would love to be the exception.)

I’m so thankful to my friends that have offered to help this week and to those that have listened to me whine. Yeah, I did a little of that. I can’t promise you’re out of the woods yet, guys. I’m still in bed as I type this and tomorrow’s not clear yet.

I also broke tradition and posted to Facebook about being sick, but in the context of other things. I also praised Kaiser. (The pharmacy also filled all four prescriptions…or three and a bag of two aero chambers for the inhaler…two, why, I only have one inhaler and one mouth…within ten minutes.)

I learned that if I look hard enough, there’s almost always a Marvel movie or Chris Hemsworth on TV somewhere. I’m currently watching him in The Huntsman: Winter’s War. I also watched The Cloverfield Paradox and Altered Carbon on Netflix. I recommend both.

Laundry sadly waits for you, so I had to put some of that away. Six shirts, a dress and three gym outfits…all from last week, the idea of running right now makes my eyeballs throb just thinking about it…took me only five minutes to fold and put away but holy closet cramming, it wore me out.

Being sick made me sassy. I should win a bottle of codeine cough syrup for the restraint I showed in biting my tongue. SO hard. Being sassy is all well and good until you tell someone to please stop whining to you about inconsequential things when you are dying. A) I’d never be that rude, and B) I wasn’t dying. That doesn’t mean I won’t subconsciously remember that the person that always needs my support again wasn’t there to give any. (Support goes both ways, big or small.) When someone feels like they’re on their death bed, for the love of miracle steroids that are beginning to give me my normal life back tonight, save the drama for another day.

I spent so much time in my bed this week, even my dog was bored, and that’s really saying something. I have perhaps the most loyal, dedicated lap dog you’ve ever seen. (You can read her special story here. She’s a super-dog.) On day two, she jumped off the bed a few times and once I found her in my office in her bed there. She has a bed under our kitchen table, so she’s by us/me when we’re down there, and one right next to my chair in my office. She’s blind, so she can’t always see where I am. If she’s unable to hear me, she may be confused where I’m at. Or just bored. I feel you, Missie, I feel you. I’m so bored I can’t stand it. Today, she wandered even more, going so far as to stay in her kitchen bed for a while, complete with a “Mommy, please come down here with me” yip. Oh, I wish I could, but that’s like 69 steps round-trip, and I’m only good for about 12 more right now.

See? 1999 steps all day. That’s got to be a record for low step count, ever. I’m kind of astounded I even got that many. And that photo was taken with my new Galaxy Note8. I LOVE it so much. No flash, and it’s totally dark in this room except for the light of my laptop and the TV. If you’re on the fence, it’s a good way to go. (I have an iPad and was supposed to be ordering my new Mac this week, but I’m an Android girl and happy with it.)

That’s the only real photo I’ll be sharing in this post. I’m pretty sure you’ll understand why AND appreciate it.

When I feel good, I’m like, man, I could use a couple of days of just laying around. I could get stuff done! Order my new camera and laptop, write a ton of stellar blog posts (sorry, you get this one instead), and get rejuvenated with the biggest decision being which Hallmark movie to watch. Ha. Be careful what you wish for. Being stuck in bed sick is lonely, isolating and you feel out-of-touch as you can feel your To Do list items multiplying….and this was just three days, so kudos to those who have health issues above and beyond bronchitis. I rarely lean on people and this week, oh yes, I did. I felt bad that I was not able to be a present mom. I think we moms often beat ourselves up or get martyr-y when we don’t need to. It’s okay to need a few days to recuperate or recover. My husband could not be more supportive or helpful than he is — he picked up my prescriptions today and has been feeding me and handling stuff more than me, even though he’s been sick, too..and working through most of it — but I still feel like I need to be contributing more than I did. And to my son, thank you for bringing me tea yesterday! (But otherwise, I think he’s afraid he’ll get sick so he won’t get too close to me….probably a smart move.)

Project 2018 is still going on, minus the workouts this week. I usually gain weight when I’m sick, but eating more clean these last 5 weeks has decreased my appetite and the kitchen’s too far away for frequent snacks. (It’s 55 steps round-trip.) I actually have continued my weight loss and I’m down six pounds now! That may not sound like a lot, but I’ve really not done anything drastic. I haven’t drank any wine at all this week (or anything of the alcohol persuasion) but I did over the weekend. I had bread in olive oil dip at Johnny Carino’s on Saturday. I had a pb&j this week, just because. I just make sure I’m doing my best to eat more protein, eat more frequently, and keep my fats and carbs down to certain levels. There’s really nothing that’s off-limits if I pay attention to what I eat and how much. It’s not always perfect, but it’s working for me. I don’t feel deprived. If I’m up to it, I can go to the party on Saturday night and enjoy the food without guilt. And if I DID exercise as regularly as I’d like to, the remaining 14 pounds would drop faster. We’ll see, I know I can’t even begin to think about running right now and I’m not going to let that stress me out.

If you’re read this far, you’re either bored and sick mom in bed OR just a really nice person. I hope for your sake it’s just that you’re really nice.