How ironic can you get? Turns out Nean was in the hospital giving birth as I typed yesterday’s post. 🙂 Haven’t heard the stats yet, but I know she had a long labor (water broke Sunday night sometime and she hadn’t had the baby yet by 5:00 or so the next afternoon). I’ll post the stats when I hear them, and I’m sure Jeff will put stuff on his site when he gets a chance, too. Oh well… I guess it’s good to be friends with me. You’ll go into labor a little before your due date. 🙂
So, Sunday evening I started having a bad lower back ache. I have a disk injury in my lower back, so a back ache isn’t uncommon, but this felt like the spasms I used to get in college rather than the aching I’ve become accustomed to since then. I took ibuprofen right away (ibuprofen actually goes into breast milk less than tylenol, so both are considered safe), and I also drank a small glass of wine to get the muscle-relaxing effect. I felt better after a bit and was able to sleep ok that night.
Well, yesterday Joel worked a little later than he normally does. I had an echocardiogram in the morning to re-check a very trivial heart condition (which is still extremely trivial) and he had stayed home with the girls, so he was trying to get in at least half a day. Close to 6PM I called him to see if he’d be heading out soon. I was started to feel my back again, so I was very glad to hear that he was in the process of packing up to come home. I hung up and went to sit down with the baby.
Within a half hour or so, I was beginning to feel terribly cold and I was shaking uncontrollably. By the time Joel got home (close to 7), I was sitting there holding a sleeping baby, shaking from head to toe, and begging him for a quilt. We took my temp and it was only 100.7, but the shaking was very violent. Every once in a while it would stop cold turkey and my body would relax, then it would start again. Joel gave me some ibuprofen and called my mother, then the Dr. By the time the Dr. called back (around 7:30 or a little after), the shaking had calmed down, but my fever was up to 101.9. The Dr. made sure the shaking didn’t seem like a seizure (my arms weren’t flailing, for example), and then he said his guess was I had the flu. He said the severe shaking was probably because my fever was going up so quickly that my body couldn’t adjust to it like it should. Apparently they’ve had quite a few people coming into their office within the past few days who have a fever and no other symptoms, but they’re testing positive to the flu. Odd. I thought it usually had other symptoms. Well, if it’s the flu, I think I lucked out as far as the strain is concerned since I’d rather deal with fever alone than deal with fever and cold-type symptoms. I just hope that I don’t pass it on to my kids since I don’t know if their bodies would handle it as well as mine can.
The other good thing about it just being a fever is that it isn’t as bad in the morning. When I start feeling achy, I’ll know to take something right away this time. That way I should be able to make it through the day taking care of the kids. When Joel gets home I’ll get some help, so I just have to make it till then. So far my fever is only 99.1 and the only symptom I have is feeling a bit more wiped out than I normally do.
Stay tuned for news on Jeff & Nean’s new addition. 🙂 I’ll post info as soon as I can once I know the stats. 🙂