January 18, 2005
Mother has a horrible, rare strain of flu that the doctor said is viral and she couldn't give us anything for it. Mother is weak and miserable, and her nose drips constantly. She has run fever of 102 yesterday and 100 today. The doctor said the CDC had sent out a warning that this strain of flu is vicious and there is nothing that can be done but to let it run its course - that's 5-7 days of misery.
The doctor was pessimistic and blunt this morning - she had put two of her patients in the hospital with pneumonia from it. I am praying it won't go into Mom's lungs. She's coughing a little bit.
There is a quick test now to determine if someone has the flu, a nasal swab. As soon as the doctor found out Mother definitely had the flu she practically propelled us out of her office. It was like we were lepers or something.
I got Mother some sudafed and soup on the way home. She seems to be getting worse. She sleeps all the time and doesn't want to eat.
Frankly, I am worried. It's a sure bet I probably
won't go to work the next few days. I would be a nervous wreck if I left her
alone. It came on so quickly, which is scary.
Monday she was fine, yesterday by the time I came home she was spiking a 102 fever and had already gone through two boxes of kleenex. In a 72 year old woman with COPD [chronic obstructive pulmonary disease] it's scary.
I also helped Alesia with her science project paper [the Effect of Acid Rain on Plants], washed sheets, did dishes, put out the recycling box and extras, ran to the grocery store for Sudafed [and worried about mom the whole time I was gone].
For dinner, Mother had chicken noodle soup I had made. She ate very little. I gave Alesia a salad and some pasta and fried chicken.
After dinner, we watched a good movie, “Songcatcher,” and Mother stayed awake through most of it. It’s about a woman who goes to Appalachia in about 1915 and records mountain music, which is mostly old English ballads passed down orally through the generations. It’s an excellent movie, but few people saw it when it came out a few years ago, probably because it has a subplot about lesbian schoolteachers who live in the mountains. The subplot is handled tastefully, but people are still uncomfortable with certain themes.
While Mother took a long nap this afternoon after lunch, I started re-reading my long-neglected manuscript for the book about the adoption. It wasn’t as bad as I had feared. It may be worth working on again. I had given out some copies to a few close friends to read and only one friend was kind about it. I think it just needs a lot of editing. Maybe I could find a Christian publisher to publish it.
Recent Comments