That last resounding THUD was Mama, felled by Da Floo...
First Cici Sunday night, then Teddy Monday morning, and me later on Monday. It's bad enough when more than one of your kids has flu, but it's an order of magnitude worse when I get it alongside them... So let me just state right here, in large letters, THANK YOU to my husband who stayed home for two days from work to take us all to the doctor, pick up medicine, go shopping, feed those who felt like eating, do laundry and get office work done on the laptop he'd brought home!! SuperPapa!! I'm hoping he doesn't come down with it himself tomorrow...
Colds and flu in Japan mean lots of sleep with extra blankets and an ice pillow for that fevered brow, a custom I thought was somewhat quaint (if not downright dangerous-- "bundling" is bad, isn't it?) until I got sick one time myself with a high fever. I decided right then and there that ice pillows were a Good Thing. Ice pillows allow you to make effective use of the body's natural fever defense while helping you feel at least a little comfortable (I won't pretend that running a fever is ever fun;-)). I picked up on using ice pillows pretty quickly, though it took a good deal longer to figure out why my husband was so adamantly against taking a bath while running a fever (in a country where homes are not centrally heated, the area where the bathroom tends to be is generally *cold* in the winter, hence the bathing contraindication). For kids, those stick-on cool gel pads for the forehead are useful (especially if you have to go wait in a doctor's office for a while)--and I think I saw those recently in the US. Am I remembering right? Have the cool Forehead Sticker Strips made the leap?
And, this bit is the same, plenty of fluids. Which means usually Pocari Sweat--an Oral Rehydration Therapy drink that is also a popular sports drink. *Not* the other way around, either, as is Gatorade--Pocari is a real ORT. I've been given it in hospitals, and advised by doctors and nurses to use it for myself and my kids while running a fever, or when recovering from a bout of stomach flu. It's good stuff that has the advantage of being both widely available and inexpensive (and, also, a name that gets picked up by English-speaking news media and reported as "a sports drink in Japan called--get this!-- Pocari SWEAT! Who'd want to drink that?!").
Today was the first day we all ate actual food instead of just O-Chazuke and Pocari sweat, and I managed to be up most of the day with no nap. And now it's 8:30pm... and I'm about to fall face-first into my keyboard, and I have no idea whether I'm writing sentences that make sense or not. Tomorrow should be better...right?
O-Yasumi Nasai!
(p.s.- we did get Tamiflu, which knocked my daughter's fever out in 36 hours and mine and Teddy's in 48 hours. Not bad!)
Interestingly enough Amy, I, Kkbundy/Waylon Hedegaard, am suffering the very same affliction 9000 miles away. My lovely bride has taken care of me. She had it too, but the cursed and lovely woman has an immune system like no other. The very worst illness will have her down for about a day and then it's over. Me? Three days of agony and then a long recovery. Damned testosterone crippled immune response. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteI hope everyone at your house feels better.
Luckily for me (is the opposite of 'uncannily''cannily'?) I don't have it. Also I have internetage again! Wahay! Should be permanent this time...
ReplyDeleteUnluckily for my I have no lovely bride.
Hope you feel better soon, Amy!
Waa! He's like superman.
ReplyDeleteI hope you guys get better soon! :)
KK-- oh noes! *So* sorry to hear you've had da flooz too! Total sympathy! Hope you're on the mend now--my immune system is uncrippled by testosterone, but I was still down for three days (though I didn't go to the doctor the first day, so was only on Tamiflu two days 'til it took the fever down--which still adds up to three days of misery). You get well soon, too--ya hear!
ReplyDeleteDaz! Yay!! Was starting to get worried--thought you must have come down with something dreadful indeed--glad it was just internet fail. Thanks for the well wishes!
ReplyDeleteEz-- thanks so much!! Our Papa was really SuperPapa this week--*and* he never came down with it, which is amazing considering we all sleep in the same room;-))
ReplyDeleteOh my! O-daiji ni!
ReplyDeleteChris--Arigatou gozaimasu! Mo daibu naotteiru--raishu kara kodomotachi wa gakko ni modoreru (yokattaa....) :-))
ReplyDeleteAw, sorry you guys were sick all at the same time.
ReplyDeleteSage and I always get sick together, within a few hours of each other. I drag out the mattresses and we build a sick room on the living room floor and stay together for the duration.
Glad you're on the upswing, and Yay for SuperPapa!
A sick room on the living room floor--that's pretty much what we've had going here for a week (though the room we sleep in is right next to the living room, so the kids could lay on the futons and watch tv to keep them quiet)...
ReplyDeleteThanks, Alice!
«Imagines Amy's house as a scene from M*A*S*H»
ReplyDeleteDaz-- HA!! Yay--Daz is back to come say funneh things that make me laff:-)) M*A*S*H* is pretty much what it looked like around here, too ('til today, anyway).
ReplyDeleteSalaryDad! Hope you and yours feel better.
ReplyDeleteSalaryDad--but no necktie 'round his head;-)) Thanks! We're pretty much on the mend (no baseball yet this weekend for Teddy, though--but everybody should be back to school on Monday...)
ReplyDeleteI recommend a flu vaccine shot in November.
ReplyDeleteFlu virii and I used to be an annual item until about 5yrs ago when I started the yearly inoculation ritual. Never had flu since.
Anyway, I hope you and yours get well soon (and don't push yourselves as soon as you start feeling better!).
Martin
Actually, I never get flu, and I've only had it twice now (this is the second time) since I've been in Japan (the other time was on an airplane in January). The problem with flu shots is that kids have to get two, a couple of weeks apart (the single dose for adults is too much for kids, so it's split into two doses). Between the first and second shots, my kids seem invariably to catch cold, making the second shot impossible (once my daughter even managed to get the chicken pox in between shots). I have friends every year who come down with flu in spite of having gotten flu shots, and a nurse friend who refuses to get flu shots (she has 2 kids) because she feels they're largely ineffective. Go figure. My parents always get flu shots (which I'm glad about). I do if we have to go on an airplane in the winter. Otherwise, I rely on vigilant hand-washing and gargling upon returning home from school (and such like).
ReplyDeleteThank you for the well wishes--we're pretty much over it! Tamiflu was quite effective for us. (And I'm trying to avoid do too much too quickly...which is hard...;-))