Getting by

It has been a slow recovery. Thanks for all the get well wishes. I think they must be working.

I've been trying to watch more tv in bed. Here I'm trying to watch Crash Test Mommy, but Puck's big head gets in the way.


To add to my stress, I was trying to tackle Mount Washmore on Sunday night and a sock got stuck in the drain and we had a flood. Second floor laundry room flood, BAD. It flooded the laundry room floor, the family room floor and down onto the kitchen below. UGH. The worst part is that it got into the cat litter box! EWWWWWWWW. So I cleaned up what I needed to. I still have to wash the floor in the laundry room, but that can wait until I'm 100%.

Monday afternoon, I noticed that my phone isn't working. I can dial out, but nobody can dial in. Annoying. I try a few times to get through to the phone company. Finally I talk to a lady who tells me that due to a strike, it may take a week before somebody can fix my line. In the meantime they forward all my calls to my cellphone. As in the one that charges me by the minute. I want to get my calls, so I just bear with it.

On Wednesday, a man shows up to fix our line. He looks at our wires outside and the first thing he asks me is if there is a jack attached to the wire that goes up to the back of the house and could there be any damage to that jack because it seems to be shorted out. Umm, yeah there is an outlet in the laundry room...uhh a flood...oh my, yes, yes. Well, it will be an extra charge of $85 for him to come into my house and disconnect that outlet. I think that I can manage a screwdriver thanks.

I saw my hairstylist on Thursday. I am embarrassed to say that it had been 10 months since I last had him do my hair. 10 months! It was in awful shape. He cut off 5 inches and had his girls straighten it. The man is a miracle worker. I have the thickest, frizziest hair in the world and he makes it seem smooth and silky and manageable. He wants me to come back next week for another complimentary straightening. Cool.



I saw the doctor on Friday. I'm doing much better, but she reminded me that it takes 4-6 weeks to get over pneumonia and that I still needed to take it easy. I am not able to overdo things without suffering for it with fatigue, body aches and nausea. Kira started breastfeeding again and she seems greatly relieved.


I had a pedicure today. I had to postpone it when I was sick. Not crazy about the colour of my toes, but it is nice to have human feet again.

Oh but it's GOOD for the planet hunny.

My husband went golfing and on the way home he almost picked up one of these Volvo XC90 V8.

He's seriously considering it anyway. BIL can get us a good deal. In the meantime, I'll keep driving my 6 year old Dodge van into the ground.

Anybody need a bed?

So at the auction yesterday, Matt bought a new bed set for us and for Kira. It was a great deal for $200. Only problem is trying to find places to put the other 41 bed sets that came with them. Yeah, my husband went out and bought 43 beds (a mix of doubles/queens/kings). So he managed to sell 5 of them to his fellow bidders for $20 each. But that still leaves us with a LOT of beds. He didn't know what to do, so today I called The Good Shepherd Centres in hopes that they can put them to good use, either in their shelters or to give to women who are starting a new life and moving into second stage housing. They seem interested, I just have to wait to hear if they can manage to pick them up by Tuesday evening.

Kira seems to be okay. She never started a fever or vomitted. She still has loose stool and it continues to cause a rash, but I think it is just the lack of breastmilk. She takes particular pleasure in kicking Matt and I in bed. She is mad at us because there are no more boobies so she kicks our heads. She does it hard too! I'm going to end up with a black eye before this week is through.

I'm still feeling pretty weak and tired today, but I am breathing better. I am improving more slowly than I had hoped. I expected that after 48 hours on antibiotics I would be feeling almost normal. I forgot what a long recovery pneumonia can be. Now I'm flashing back to 11 years ago when I had it the first time. A month later, I was still having sweats (day and night). I think it took me about 2 or 3 months to get back to full strength. And that was when I was 23, 20 lbs lighter, pre-asthma diagnosis and without kids! Oh yeah and I didn't have a house to tidy up! A week without anybody taking care of things has left my house and yard in shambles! This sickness has cost me months.

Out of the frying pan into the fire

Bad development. Now Kira is getting sick. She has had loose bowel movements, but this morning, she had the foulest smelling diaper ever. I haven't smelled anything but the awful smells inside my own head for almost 2 weeks now and it was knocking my socks off. It made me think of Kathy D's discussions about the smell of Rotavirus. I'm not assuming yet, because she has had a terrible dietary change. She has refused to try the formula, or milk. She prefers to sip on bottled water. And she has been very clingy and lethargic, which I have to say works out kind of nicely for me. I'm trying to get her to eat something. I think she is starting a fever because she feels almost as hot as me. I'll take her temperature after lunch.

Where is my husband do you ask? Oh, well, there was this really cool old hotel, and they are auctioning off the contents, and you know it's a moment in history. So much of a moment in history that he came back and picked up Patrick and took him too! DUH that was my lifeline here. I'm married to a child, my mistake, if I think of it that way, I can understand the egocentrism and not murder him. For now.

I went to the doctors on Friday. Thursday was pretty bad so I booked an appointment. My back was hurting whenever I coughed and I was losing my voice. Friday I woke up feeling worse, feverish, headachey, disoriented and I couldn’t even cough anymore. She listened to my chest and said, “Oh, Adri, this is bad, you have fluid all through your lungs now.” I asked her to check my tonsils because I was feeling some swelling there and she said that was because my larynx was infected now too. She said I had to take antibiotics and the only kind she could give me was toxic through breastmilk, so I would need to wean Kira. I begged her to try one I had already had an allergic reaction to that was safe during breastfeeding. I said, well you know the reaction I had with that one wasn’t so bad, let’s try that. Nope, apparently that doesn’t treat lung infections. She reminded me that if we waited any longer I would need hospitalization. OMG, I burst out crying. You are telling me that I have to wean my baby when I am feeling this shitty? Kira is not a delicate little thing. She’s a beast, and I was literally afraid of saying no to her in my time of weakness.

So I got my antibiotics, picked up my kids and came home. I hit the bed and I thought I was going to die. My mother called me and I told her that if the drugs did not work by morning, I would be going to the hospital, could she drive. I was drowning, there was no more room left in my lungs for air. Thankfully, I was able to cough a bit on Saturday, but I’m still pretty bad. I'm not eating much even when I try because everything tastes like vomit. Tonight I actually had to throw out 1/2 my bowl of ice cream. My boobs are KILLING now.

My kids have been pretty good to me. Even Kira. She isn't happy about our new arrangement, but she seems to have accepted it. She cries herself to sleep in my bed, but doesn't ask for the boobies. My husband is still an asshole, I don’t even want to tell you the bonehead things he has done. I have decided not to fight with him about it until I have gotten my full strength back. Then he’d better start sleeping with one eye open.

I had to miss my high school reunion, but before I left for the doctor's on Friday, I made sure to remind my girlfriends who were going to say 'hi' for me and to let everybody know how youthful/thin/successful/rich I am these days. And I didn't even have to diet!