I am not nostalgic for 2020 but sometimes I do miss the fact that none of our family got so much as a cold for months on end. Even with a child who started kindergarten that autumn. We have not been so fortunate this time around. (Huh. Looks like wearing masks and washing your hands made a difference.) It’s October 21st and I feel like I’ve missed most of the month. All four of us were laid flat with a vicious cold and we’re just beginning to feel better.
We finished out September with celebrating Rose’s birthday and thankfully were all healthy then to visit my brother and his family in Vancouver. His youngest daughter’s birthday is exactly one week (and seven years) before Rose’s so we got to celebrate them together.
The weather has continued to be warm and sunny here – which is very strange because that’s not at all normal for our part of the world, commonly nicknamed the “Wet Coast” or the “Raincoast”. We’re in a pretty severe drought and this week a State of Local Emergency was announced. The most direct way this effects us is that our local pool is shut down and the girls’ swim lessons postponed.
We’ve been trying to enjoy the sunshine but it does feel strange to do so when we’re so desperate for rain.
A week and a bit after Rose’s birthday we celebrated Peter’s birthday and then Thanksgiving. Rose started feeling unwell so we had a quiet holiday though were able to enjoy a meal with Peter’s parents and one of his brothers. By Tuesday both girls were sick and then we all went down hard.
I think being sick sucks no matter what and I don’t believe that it’s necessarily worse for parents. But being super sick and in pain while having two small children who are also sick and uncomfortable is still really, really hard. I’m prone to ear infections and had a bad one this time. The girls had coughs, runny noses, sore ears, sore throats…it was rough. It’s hard to get good rest and none of us were sleeping through the night. The fact that Canada is currently experiencing a shortage in children’s pain and flu medication also didn’t help.
That said, I am really thankful for: a husband who helped prioritize my rest, helpful pharmacists who gave us remedies and medicine, my in-laws who gave me a quiet room to nap for a whole day and helped with school pick-ups and drop-offs once the girls went back to school and I was still feeling rough, friends who brought us dinner.
Here is a picture of the girls using one of our helpful home remedies, steam from bowls of hot water:
This week the girls have been able to go back to school and today is a pro-d day so their short week was made shorter anyway. We’re definitely not at 100% yet (I don’t have my full hearing back and we’re all coughing a lot at night still) but it does feel like we’re on the upswing.
And there is rain in the forecast this weekend!
Karissa Reads Books 
Oh no I’m glad everyone is starting to feel better – I think during the pandemic as no one was seeing each other viruses weren’t spreading as much and our immune system wasn’t having to fight anything so I think any bug now just seems 10 times worse as I seem to be catching colds which are much worse now.
Now that’s an interesting thought! We have been hit hard by our last two sicknesses and I’ve wondered why. I’m sure there will be some interesting studies that come out in the next few years about covid and all it’s longterm effects!
Glad to hear you’re on the mend and hope you feel better soon!
I’m glad you’re all hopefully on the other side of this – a rough go especially ear infections. It’s good you felt well supported 🙂
Glad to hear you are all on the mend and that rain is forecast. Am also glad you have family and friends to take care of you all 🙂
Thank you! It makes a huge difference to have support. We’re very fortunate!
Ugh! Hope you all get back to fighting fitness soon! I know how exhausting just feeding the cat can be when ill so I can’t begin to imagine having to look after two sick children!
It was rough! But we are thankfully on the mend and are returning to regular routines this week – it feels so good!
I am also prone to ear infections and (temporarily) lose my hearing every time I get a cold, so you most definitely have my sympathy there – it’s a pretty miserable experience. I hope you are all on the mend now!
Ugh, it’s terrible. As a kid I would get ear infections multiple times a year and thankfully they are far less frequent now. I haven’t had a bad one like this in about a decade. I still don’t have my full hearing back yet but I’m on the mend!
That picture of the girls under the steam bowls broke my heart a little. Your poor family! Unfortunately, Nick has COVID but thankfully it’s a little stuffy nose and some mild coughing. I’m sad because I haven’t been in the same room as him in five days, and before that he was gone at a conference. Heh, you could say I’m a little loney.
Parenting may have hardened me because that picture made me laugh when I look at it. It’s been a rough couple of weeks though so maybe that’s just my coping mechanism!
I’m sorry to hear about Nick but glad he has it pretty mild so far. That sucks that you can’t see him. How much longer will he quarantine for? Do you still have quarantine requirements where you live or do you just decide for yourself now?
His work requirements are quarantine five days then wear a mask at work for five days. But he took a test and still has COVID after five days, so I’m guessing the policy is largely to get folks back to work when they are LESS contagious. My problem is I don’t get sick days or vacation days, and I have a bunch of required interpreting jobs coming up, including Deaf Fest.
Poor Nick! Is he at least feeling better?
Our recent bout of sickness wasn’t covid but we did choose to wear masks the first few days but once we were back out in the world and I liked that that felt like a normal option now.
He got sniffly-stuffy and had a small cough. The hardest part was the isolation, which led to him having some mental health challenges last week. I encouraged him to get outside while I was at school, and that helped. He also felt guilty because he caught COVID when he rode a plane without a mask on, so that was a mental health concern, too.
Oh, that is hard. In some ways I miss when the rules around masking were very cut and dry.
True. It was a decision he made, though, to not ride it on the plane.
Yes, I’m sympathetic though because I know I’ve been in situations where I realize afterward I probably should have masked and it’s just luck I didn’t get sick. And then there are other times when I wish everyone was still wearing a mask. I’m excited though because next week Rose will finally get her first covid dose and then our whole family will have a bit more protection!
Yay, Rose! I am rooting for her! Please tell her Melanie is very excited for her 🙂 As soon as the semester is over, I am getting the bivalent.
I am very excited for her too! I got tired of waiting for the online register system to book her an appointment so I went straight to the source here and called the local health unit and got her in! The rest of us all got our boosters and flu shots last week so it will feel really good for the whole family to be covered. None of us had more side effects than a sore arm so I hope it goes smoothly with you too.
Cupcakes & Machetes was saying she felt pretty awful after the bivalent shot, but I think she felt not great with the previous three as well…
I’ve heard that from a few people too but both Peter and I felt fine after ours. I was a bit sick after my 2nd shot but have overall come out feeling fine which I’m thankful for.