This has been the worst year for sickness!

[katautumn]

Just need to vent a moment. Has anyone else had the year from you-know-where in terms of illness? We got through the height of H1N1 unscathed, thank heavens. No one even got so much as a sniffle. Then, around October of '09 the sickness hit. It started with my sister having a cold and my son caught it. We rolled along until the week before Thanksgiving when my dad walked around with a "tickle in his throat" saying it was "change in the weather". Well, we all caught his "change in the weather" just in time for Thanksgiving. Then the week before Christmas my son got another cold. This one was, fortunately, mild and he was well by Christmas.

Then the second week in January, just before my birthday, my brother-in-law came over with my sister. He kept coughing and sneezing, claiming it was "allergies". Yep, you guess it. We all caught his "allergies". So that was my second cold this season and my son's fourth. Just when our weather began to warm up and I thought we were getting into the clear my grandmother starts acting funny on Saturday. She lives with us, but works outside the home. All Saturday night and all day Sunday she's in and out of the bathroom and then she starts violently coughing on Sunday. She claims she's "fine" and it's just a "seasonal tickle" she "always gets". She won't eat normally, lays up on the couch, keeps napping and won't eat anything but crackers and drink Ginger Ale. When I asked her if she was sick to her stomach she said, "no, but this seasonal tickle makes me not have much of an appetite". What a load of baloney! She's like that anyway. She could be dying for all anyone would know and she'd never say anything. And you can't get her to see a doctor. So I panic it's something awful, like the flu, and run around all day and night with Clorox wipes praying my son doesn't get sick...AGAIN.

Now I'm sitting here with a "seasonal tickle" in my throat. This is just great. My son has Asperger's Syndrome, so for him being sick is a huge deal. He's so in tune with his body that the slightest scratchy throat sends him into meltdown mode. It's so hard when he's sick and when I'm sick with him it's even harder. Why have we all been sick so frequently this season?! Arrrgh!!!

 

[Prisca982]

You have my sympathies - this past year we've had a sickness bug, tonsilitis, an ear infection, a cold, and a cough ... it's miserable while it lasts.

But God is dealing with you - any suffering, however small, is his loving correction. We learn patience and endurance, not to mention a greater understanding of Christ's own sufferings. (This has been learned the hard way btw!)

On a practical level, frequent hand washing helps keep bugs away (everyone in our house washes their hands before eating and as soon as they come in from outside). Also you might try including more fresh fruit and vegetables in your families diet - vitamin C is very important in fighting off illness.

Hope you all feel better soon!