Well, that's just the way we are. We're a small family and we stay close. They take care of me and I like to think in some ways we take care of them, too.
This week has been absolute hell for me and I have never needed my parents more. No, not even when Lily was first born.
It started last Wednesday. While I was working, I noticed that my right eye was annoying me, to the point of feeling like a headache IN my eye. It hurt to look around, and even blink. It definitely hurt to the touch. I didn't think much of it, not even when it turned into what I thought to be a sinus headache...and then a fever. I just assumed I was getting a sinus infection, again, like I do every few months.
By 4pm my fever was 102 and my head was in pretty severe pain. I never have experienced a migraine but I assumed this to be something similar. The pain was all around my eyes, creating a mohawk in the center of my skull and reached the base of my neck, radiating into my shoulder blades.
I began to get a little nervous about all of this pain so I asked my dad to stick around, who had been helping my mom watch Lily the majority of the afternoon, until Dustin got home from work. By 11pm, when Dustin got home, I demanded to be taken to the emergency room because the pain was so intense.
Of course, my dad stayed, without question.
Six hours, one CT scan, one spinal tap and two blood tests later, I had no answers about my condition and was sent home with antibiotics.
To make a very long, boring story short, I had to go back to the ER on Saturday because the pain worsened and went to my GP on Monday. Still, no real answers aside from "it's a virus and it has to run it's course".
So, here I lay, STILL, almost seven days later. The pain is about 30% better but I still can't seem to stay on my feet too long before I feel like I might pass out. I have been almost completely out of commission aside from my work laptop being by my side to get some email work done. The best I've felt in the past 7 days was after the second ER trip. They pumped me full of fluids and an anti inflammatory drug and I felt like a new person that evening. Unfortunately, that same drug in a pill form did nothing except for make me extremely nauseated and the pain was actually worse on Sunday. I'm beyond frustrated and have new compassion for anyone who experiences chronic migraines or who has ever had a debilitating virus or illness. I don't have time for this shit. I need to get better and get back to my life.
However, my revelation has been about my amazing support system. Dustin has been amazing, of course, and has stepped up to doing everything necessary in the house and taking care of Lily.
Then, there are my parents. They cook, they clean, and they are here at the drop of a hat. Who has support like that outside of their spouses?? I am so thankful. I truly don't know what we would have done without them this past week. Dustin would have had to miss so much work and we certainly would not be so well fed. My mother even had to endure taking me to my doctor's appointment on Monday while I was all doped up on Xanax, babbling about how scary this is and how I basically wanted to die right then and there. God, love her. I know I was probably worrying them, too.
Yes, this too shall pass, I know, but in the trenches, it sucks ass. It truly does, and viruses are scary. Whoever said that "you don't have anything if you don't have your health" was so right...except, it's times like these that I truly appreciate my family from a different perspective. My family is the true definition of just that: family. They rally when times get tough and nothing compares to that.
Thanks, mom and dad. Thanks for always taking care of your "baby".
