(no subject)

We're all still alive. I have my antibiotics and popsicles, and Scott has plenty of Gatorade. (Thanks much anderyn!)

Thanks for all the good wishes.

Scott's managing to sit up in bed and watch DVDs on his laptop. He's not very steady on his feet, though, and he's not ready to eat anything. I was worried about him earlier because he was in a lot of pain. We called UHS and talked to the nurse who saw him yesterday. She suggested Tylenol, and that has reduced the pain.

I'm very, very, very tired. Part of that is being sick, and part of that is needing to take care of everything I do every day and everything Scott does, too. I'm ambulatory, after all. The thing that took the biggest toll today was shoveling the walk. It had to be done. The city requires it. Scott couldn't do it at all, and I'm not supposed to do it. I shoveled rather than attempting to use the snow blower because I have a lot of trouble with things that vibrate-- they hurt-- and because I'd have had to figure out how it worked with no instruction manual. A shovel's hard on me physically, but it won't make me wish my joints were better cushioned, and it's pretty easy to understand how one works.

I'm very seriously considering asking either my sister-in-law or my mother-in-law to take Cordelia tomorrow night. I'd go for tonight, but her class' holiday party is tomorrow. Bad enough that nobody attended her concert. I don't want to take the party away from her, too. I talked to the teacher about the possibility of Cordelia missing Friday, and the teacher didn't think it would be a problem. Thursday night isn't as helpful for us as tonight or last night would be, but it's at least possible. Plus, my niece and nephew have their last day of school before break tomorrow.

I also told Cordelia's teacher that I have strep. I wanted her to watch Cordelia for any symptoms of it and to pay attention if Cordelia says she's got a sore throat. I don't want Cordelia to catch this, but there's not a lot I can do beyond what I'm already doing. I could stop cuddling her, but I think that might be worse for her than having strep at Christmas time. She's already freaked out by the fact that both her parents are sick and by the fact that we're over-reacting to her normal level of disobedience. (Last night's struggle over tooth brushing...blew up spectacularly. I couldn't handle it, and rather than helping, she fought harder.)

ETA: Apart from the five cards I mailed Friday, all my holiday cards are on hold until I reach the point with the antibiotics when I shouldn't be contagious any more. I figure nobody wants an envelope that I've sealed by licking at this point in time. That may well mean that cards arrive closer to the New Year than to Christmas. (I tend to aim for Christmas as that's the holiday I celebrate.)

(no subject)

::grumbles obscenities:: Of course. Having relatives take Cordelia over night would be too easy. I even made the mistake of mentioning the idea to Cordelia. Now I've had to explain to her why it's not going to happen.

My sister-in-law can't take her because her son is having tubes put in his ears Friday morning. My in-laws can't take her because they'll have my niece Thursday night and my sister-in-law doesn't want her exposed to anything, even at this remove, that she might bring home to her brother. This is not unreasonable. Really.

Except that she has both her parents and her in-laws living no more than fifteen minutes' drive from her home. Her sister-in-law is single, lives half an hour away and works a parttime job that welcomes kids. I don't know if she asked anybody else or not. They might be out of town. They might be busy. Who knows?

My nearest relative is two hours away, and he works nights, delivering pizza. After that, we hit a bunch who either can't drive (my grandmother and my father's sister and brother) or are people I haven't seen in more than five years and might not recognize on the street (two of my mother's brothers and a bunch of cousins). I think my step-father has nieces somewhere in the area, but I don't know their married names and haven't seen them since I was about fifteen.

Not only is my mother a long way away, but she's also in the middle of some major family crises involving her father, one of her brothers and her brother's girlfriend. (It's messy, nasty and ultimately not going to end until they either die or are institutionalized. I may rant about it some day if I feel up to being depressed.)

I hadn't realized how much I was hoping for a break until I got that no. I don't think Scott understands it at all, either. It wouldn't have done him any good at all. He's currently dragging himself around trying to force himself to be better because he's out of sick days and has to work twelve hours tomorrow. I have officially requested that, if he has to pass out while he's working, he find a way to do it away from the machinery. I'm definitely worried about him working. I don't see a way around it, though.