Thankful for a Cold?

I have had a nagging cold for nearly a week now, and today I think I am starting my way onto the upward swing. At least I have decided that it's time to get better. I volunteered in the hot lunch program at school today, I'm going in Tuesday and Thursday mornings to work at the book fair, and my house needs some serious attention (ask anyone in my family). So I don't have anymore time to be sick.

But I am thankful that this weekend I did have some time to lay in bed or on the couch and concentrate on getting better. I'm thankful that my husband took over kitchen duty in the midst of the pile of work he had to do, and my kids found ways to entertain themselves. I'm thankful that my Sunday School co-workers took over and allowed me to sit quietly in the service with Chris yesterday morning. I'm thankful that I had time to finish a really good book (yes, the one with the missing pages). And I'm extremely thankful for cold medicine which allowed me to breathe and therefore enjoy my time on the couch.

And once in a while, don't we need an excuse to just hang out on the couch? Sure, it would be better without the pounding headache and painful coughing, but as I said, that's what cold medicine is for. So I'm ready to get better, but in the spirit of true gratitude, today, I'm thankful for my cold.

Doctor Dilemma

One of the things that I have been really pleased with since we moved to Ontario has been the level of healthcare my family has received. This started even before we had a doctor. When Janelle broke her arm last summer, I took her to a clinic where she was diagnosed in under five minutes, an x-ray clinic where we waited about 15 minutes, and London Children's Hospital, where we may have waited about 45 minutes to see a doctor. All in all, including driving and having a cast put on, we were home within three hours of her accident. Not bad. I hate to say it, but in Fredericton this probably would have been an all day ordeal.

I was even happier with our healthcare when we met our new doctor. I found her on a "London Academy of Medicine" website, and it took a few months to get in to her, but she is wonderful. She is extremely thorough, never rushed, and so kind and helpful. Such a contrast to my very gruff, impatient, always in a hurry, and often insensitive family doctor in Fredericton. He wasn't a nightmare of a doctor like some of my friends have described, but he certainly never put me at ease. The day I met my doctor here I immediately felt "cared for" in a way I never had with my old doctor. She immediately set up appointments for Janelle's arm to be reassessed, Connor's hearing to be checked, and for Chris and I to have long-awaited full check-ups. Every time I've been in her office she has not left without asking if there is anything else she can do for me. She's wonderful! I love her! But at my check-up in February she gave me some bad news.

Not the kind of bad news you expect in a doctor's office. I don't have some frightening rare disease. Or a more frightening common disease for that matter! My children are fine. I'm healthy and (according to my doctor) young for my age (see why I love her?) No, none of the usual doctor's office bad stuff. But terrible just the same.

My doctor is moving away.

She assured me that we would still be cared for, that we will still have a doctor and that if it takes some time for the office to hire a new doctor the others in the practice would pick up the slack. Still, I felt awful. I finally found a wonderful, caring doctor, and she's leaving me! But then a month later I got a letter in the mail that made me feel worse.

The letter explained that my doctor would be moving because her husband had found employment in another city and that attempts would be made to replace her, but she could not guarantee a new doctor would be found. Therefore, she suggested, we should begin our search for a new family doctor. AGAIN! WHAT? I just did that last year! I was very happy with the result, and I don't want to do it again!

I've gone back to the same website I found our current doctor on, but the only doctor taking patients is in a town quite a distance from here. There is one doctor accepting adult patients up until next week, and a pediatrician accepting children, but they are both at the opposite end of the city and I had really hoped we'd all be able to have the same doctor. There is also a service that I can register for where we will be assigned a doctor on a random basis, and we could all end up with different ones, but we don't even qualify for that service until after our doctor has moved. My next option is to just start calling doctor's offices. Chris suggested I look for recommendations, but seriously? In this part of the world, as in NB, "you get what you get and you don't get upset". Otherwise I would have left my doc in Freddy a long time ago!

So maybe I should call the adult doc and the pediatrician. Or maybe I should just start making phone calls. Or maybe I should wait and pray that the clinic where my doctor works is able to replace her after all. It's a dilemma, and one I had really hoped I wouldn't have to deal with again for a long time! Meanwhile, the walk-in clinic around the corner is very quick and the doctor (who is about 102 years old) is a sweet old fellow. Maybe I should just stick with him!

Mom's Antennae

The first night after we brought Connor home from the hospital he slept in his own room, and we kept the baby monitor on in our bedroom. Neither of us slept a wink. We heard every breath Connor took, every rustle he made, practically every heartbeat. That was the end of that. We never brought a baby monitor into our room again. Connor's room was just across the hall from ours, and we were both able to sleep soundly, but I still heard every tiny wimper he made. God gives mothers special ears. I call it Mom's antennae. There is something about childbirth that enhances our hearing.

Last night, I don't even know what I heard but suddenly I sat up in bed and said "Chris.... Nellie!" I sleep on the far side of the bed from the door and I was immediately afraid I wouldn't get to her in time. I took off running. Chris didn't hear a thing before my footsteps pounding toward the door. Sure enough, the stomach flu had hit our house, taking our baby girl down for the count. It was around 2:30 a.m., and I don't think I fully fell back to sleep before the second time I heard a noise. It was about 4:15 and it sounded like a cough, magnified so that it sounded like it was right next to my ear. This time I had to change her sheets, so I woke Chris to sit with her in the bathroom while I gathered the laundry, carried it down to the washing machine, and put fresh sheets on the bed. All the while, Chris sat on the floor in the hallway shaking his head and saying "I don't understand how you heard her". Mama's ears — one of God's amazing gifts.

My last interuption was around 5:30 a.m. Chris didn't rouse at all for that one, although he murmured something about "Sorry you're having a rough night" when I climbed back into bed. I reset my alarm for 7:30 and finally settled into a sound sleep. Today, Janelle and I have stayed pretty close to my bed. I got up for lunch, and she has stayed to watch TV. We read some of a chapter book for a while. She still isn't able to even keep water down, so she hasn't eaten at all, and she is pathetically pale. But she's content to stay in my bed and doze and look at books and watch her shows, even when I go downstairs. She knows I'll hear her if she needs me. She has perfect faith in Mama's ears.

The Best Kids

I know, I should not be letting a whole week go by without posting. My mother and certain others of you will be very unhappy with me. But come on, it's "busy December", and I already wrote last year about how crazy December is! This past weekend alone we had the Christmas office party, practice for the Christmas Sunday School concert, performance of the Sunday School concert, and our Home Group Christmas potluck. PLUS I got the FLU! I always seem to get sick in December. I hope it's not my Christmas tree that is making that happen, but I seriously doubt that an evergreen would cause body aches and chills. The doctor told me yesterday that it really is just a flu that I have to wait out. So I'm waiting. Today I was supposed to help supervise at the school Christmas concert practice at the high school, but the buses were taken off today because of another storm (yes, it is once again a winter wonderland in London - they finally plowed our street on Sunday night, so it had to start snowing again!), so there was no transportation to the high school, and therefore, no Christmas concert practice, so I'm free to stay home and wrap gifts in my jammies. Unfortunately, that probably means no Christmas concert tonight. My kids won't be pleased about that.

Speaking of my awesome kids, the one great thing that happened this weekend happened after Chris and I arrived home from his office party on Friday night. We had a new babysitter because the one we had previously used was unavailable. I was pretty impressed with her from the beginning. She was very friendly and talkative when I picked her up, and once we got to the house and I introduced her to the kids she really made an effort to engage them and make a connection. I had told her that most babysitters say my kids are pretty easy to keep, so I didn't expect she'd have any problems. By the time we got home I was feeling pretty miserable. We had a lovely dinner and casino night, and I had a chance to meet a lot of Chris's coworkers, but by 11:00 I knew that the flu was beginning to settle in and make itself at home. We walked in the door and said hello to the babysitter and she immediately said "Those are absolutely the best behaved kids I have ever babysat!" Wow! We both just swelled right up with pride, and for a couple of minutes I forgot to feel like death warmed over. I know this babysitter wants us to call her again, so she probably would give a positive report about the evening, but she really didn't have to gush quite so much. On the way home she talked about how much fun she had playing games with the kids, reading stories and singing with Janelle, and then watching TV with Connor. She sounded pretty sincere, so I choose to believe that she really meant what she said.

I have to agree with her. Although they are not always on their best behaviour with me, I do have a couple of amazing kids. I'm a pretty blessed mom!

Excuse for a Day Off

I have a list of things I need to get done this week. A long list! And I am NOT a list maker! But there are certain things that I want to get done, and I don't want to forget anything. Yesterday I was pretty successful. I had high hopes for today. Until I woke up this morning.

I have had a sore neck that spreads out to my shoulder and down my back for several days now. In the night last night it was nearly unbearable. This morning it was a bit better, but not scrubbing the floor and dyeing my hair better! So after I took the kids to school I went back to bed. I slept nearly three hours and woke up still not feeling well enough to tackle much on my list.

Sitting at the computer is one of the more painful things I do. Reading a book is not bad at all. And I still have that great book to read. Maybe I'll finish it today...