Our Song...

     My first semester in the MSW program was horrific to say the least. Massive amounts of papers anywhere from 10-25 pgs long, teachers whose styles of thinking and communicating were world's apart from my own, tests that I would study for for 2 days straight and then get a C on it. All of that while working 40 hrs a week. As most know Tom was, at that point, just my really good friend who wanted to be more but that I said I didn't have the time to commit to. Somehow, with a lot of praying and the good grace of professors I made it through that semester.
     My second semester in the MSW program was considerably lighter. I was still working 40 hrs a week but the coursework wasn't as horrendous. I was feeling a lot better about life. Early on in the semester Tom asked me what my feelings were about him and I true to my scaredy cat self told him that I still didn't feel like I was in a place where I could make a commitment. In all reality, I was scared, scared of losing my best friend, scared of opening myself up to potentially getting hurt again. He took it good naturedly and we remained friends. One night, I was working a graveyard shift at work and was puttering around on facebook when I noticed that Tom had posted a link to a song called  Let It Be Me by Ray Lamontagne. The song is about someone pleading that when their significant other/friend/ whatever feels like they have no more hope, when they feel like every door is being slammed in their face, when they feel like they can't go on anymore and they need a friend that that friend can be them. I listened to that song and immediately thought of my first semester in the MSW program. I thought of how many times that semester I wanted to give up and call it quits. And I thought of what helped me get through it...it was Tom. And now we are happily married.

Don't count your chickens before they hatch...

     Yesterday I woke up and found myself feeling a lot better. I still had a lot of congestion and what not but figured I wouldn't let that stop me. I announced to Tom that we need to deep clean our house and rid it of the infestation of germs that had taken hold over the last week and a half. This included sweeping, mopping, tons of laundry, etc. When we woke up Tom seemed fine, maybe a little congest like me, but nothing too serious. Well as the day wore on he started complaining of congestion, watery eyes, itchiness in the face, and feeling like he had to sneeze every five seconds. He said it felt like allergies but not because he doesn't have any allergies that he is aware of. Occasionally, he would turn to me with his face all read and one side all screwed up because it was itchy or leaking or something...it was super funny and I had to try my hardest not to laugh. Poor thing...he got stuck with kind of a lame wife. Anyway, we were super confused because as far as we knew we hadn't been doing anything differently so we had no idea where said allergies would have come from. 

     When I was sick as a kid I remember Mom would always get me a slurpee to sip on and that always made me feel better. Unfortunately, as Tom and I learned this last week, January in Utah is not exactly slurpee weather. That being said, I decided last night that I would make Tom Russian Tea, which is another thing that I remember Mom doing when I was a kid. So last night as we're headed to bed Tom tells me that he's feeling cold. I about fell over; Tom never gets cold--it's almost like he's part furnace. I gave him a blanket and asked him to take his temperature and sure enough he had a fever. Poor thing. We think that maybe I didn't catch the what I had from him after all, rather that he had something entirely different and while he was trying to get over it and his immune system was weakened he caught what I had. But, in reality the world may never know. So, we were thinking we were through being sick, but in the life threw us a curve ball. Poor guy, I hope he get's over this soon, because it's no bueno.

Stay safe and Healthy!

Get vaccinated

     Last Wednesday Tom started complaining of sinus pressure and just not feeling super well. He called me on his way home from work and mentioned that he had a sinus headache and that he thought he was coming down with a sinus infection, which he is prone to get every now and then. He came home and I gave him some zinc and IBUprofen and he took a nap for about an hour and a half that evening at which point he woke up and mentioned that he was feeling much better. Over the next few days he got worse with congestion, cough, etc. until Friday, when he hit his low point. Friday, Tom called off work and stayed home with the same symptoms he'd been having. However, when I called him Friday afternoon on my way home from work he said that he had gotten worse and really wasn't feeling well. I stopped at the store and got some last minute things to take care of the sick hubs, including a thermometer, and ingredients to make some chicken noodle soup for dinner. When I got home I made Tom take his temperature and he had a fever of 100.6. I did my best to take care of Tom but at the same time tried to be very careful to not catch whatever it was he had. I should have known though, that when you share a bed with someone you can never truly avoid their germs. haha
     Early Tuesday morning I woke up feeling really congested. I knew that I was getting whatever it was Tom had. But, I was determined that it was not going to last any longer than it absolutely had to. I was drinking a ton of water and OJ, eating oranges, chicken noodle soup,  I took zinc, I was doing sinus rinses to clear my congestion, anything I could think of to make this pass by as quickly with as little discomfort as possible. Wouldn't you know my luck though, that despite all that, it hit me hard, in some ways even worse than it had hit Tom. Tuesday night I began to get a wicked case of the chills--which is usually a sign for me that I'm getting a fever. I had Tom take my temperature several times but it kept coming back normal so we went to bed. Sometime in the middle of the night I woke up coughing and I took my temperature, it had risen to 99.1 then a few hours later it had risen again to 99.8. I ended up having a fever for 2 days straight with plenty of congestion, coughing, achiness, and a few more rather unfavorable side effects. Here it is Friday, and my fever just broke last night sometime around 1am. Maybe Tom is bionic, or maybe I'm just a wimp. Maybe it's because Tom's hit more toward the end of the week whereas I got it smack dab in the middle, but in some ways I feel like it laid me up more than him. But Tom was, as always, wonderful and he took care of me through it all. Who knows why. In any case were both on the mend and doing marginally better.
     Moral of the story? Get your flu shots boys and girls!