Flu Tu

Already certain that I wasn’t going to work, I slept until 7:15am. Like any other morning, I brushed my teeth and grabbed my running clothes off the hook in the closet before heading down the stairs to start my day. Aside from making coffee, I took my meds – Tamiflu, Ibuprofen, & Delsym. I skipped my vitamin and scripted anti-inflammatory. I felt considerably better than I did Wednesday morning. It wasn’t even close. In turn, my exercise routine went far easier too. That was an especially good sign.

Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t as forgiving. It was cloudy and threatening rain. Ykraps and I took our walk towards the east. The one silver lining was the temperature. It was already near 50. We ran into fireman Mike leaving for his part-time job. We talked for a couple minutes.

Back at home I poured some coffee and then took to the PC. Those nasty flu symptoms came in waves, but they were never too strong and left almost as soon as they arrived. Bella was up early and looked pretty good compared to the day before. She didn’t seem to have a fever either. That was good news. Jacob remained in his bed. I left Mindy sleep since she didn’t get a good night’s sleep the evening before. I dressed and left for a run sometime around 9am. My run went so much easier today, although my hamstrings and hips still ached a little. However, with my expectations in check, I didn’t expect to feel perfect.

Everyone was up when I returned. Mindy’s phone rang a number of times. She was a chatty woman. She had a doctor’s appointment scheduled around noon related to her planned May surgery. She readied for that. Both kids were far better today as well. We knew simply by their fighting energy. They argued and fought quite a bit. Mindy left for her appointment, and the kids stayed with me. We spent a lot of time on the couch napping and watching TV. The thing about the flu, even nicely medicated, it takes away your energy. I was napping three and four times a day.

We watched a cool show on TLC about bricks and then one about concrete. Both were very educational. For example, did you know that the latest concretes allow light to pass through and it’s comparatively stronger than its older counterparts. Learn something new every day. I was pleased to see that Jacob was as fascinated with the program as I was.

Eventually tiring of TV, I made my way to the PC to fool around with pictures – go figure! Mindy got back from her doctor’s appointment some time after 2pm. She shared how she was poked and prodded and in all sorts of unique places by the doctor and his assistants. Even another nosey patient got in on the action. I didn’t really care to hear the gory details. I asked that she save them for the dinner table. J Speaking of dinner, Mindy asked what we wanted. We eventually agreed to have home cooked burgers. Mindy really wanted Greek, but I didn’t feel like going out. No one did.

Around 4:30pm Mindy got to cooking. I, in turn, took to napping after doing some reading. I walked Ykraps before settling down for dinner. I thought about waiting until afterwards, but let’s face it, that would’ve driven me nuts. Our burgers were delicious. They were served with a side of green peas. Bella, sitting right beside me, coughed repeatedly and on her burger. Honestly, it grossed me out. I had my eyes on her leftovers prior to that.

Clean up went quickly. After dinner, Jacob and I wrestled some. Mindy already told him that he was heading back to school tomorrow. He didn’t want to, but that was tough. All of us were going back to our routines tomorrow. Bella was still having coughing fits. She was hit the hardest – not getting the flu medicine in her fast enough to see the same results that Jacob and I recognized.

The kids and Mindy watched a DVD of some sort. If memory serves, I think it was Mulan II. Until then, I didn’t realize that there was such a thing. As bed time approached, we both worked to get the kids bathed and ready for bed. I saw Jacob through a shower, and Mindy dealt with Bella. We had them in bed by 8pm but they didn’t go immediately asleep. Jacob stayed up and watched the Buckeye NIT championship game from his bed. Bella just coughed from bed.

I watched the Buckeye game too. In fact, it’s the only OSU basketball game that I’ve watched all year. We won! Eager for a good night’s sleep, I headed for bed even before Mindy. I was in bed by 9:30pm.