Tears, Tissue and TLC

 Yeah, that pretty much sums up my weekend. {Prepare for a bit of an overshare... ;-)}

Do you remember when I said I was coming down with a cold? What I should have said was I was coming down with the cold from hell. Seriously, I haven't felt this awful in a long, long time. I'm told that colds during pregnancy just down right suck. Well, all those people were correct. It started Wednesday with an allergy "attack." Sneezing, watery eyes...that sort of thing. I attempted to put in my contacts. They lasted a whopping 20 minutes before I took them out. Thursday I woke up with a sore throat and a cough. I even got myself together and attended a platoon picnic {which turned out to be not as bad as I thought}.

And then there was Friday. The cold hit in full force with runny nose, severe sinus, pressure and cough. By the afternoon I decided I needed drugs and Kleenex, so I sent Joe out in search of pregnancy-safe meds. I felt bad for Joe because he ended up going to 3 stores before he was able to get Sudafed. I know some doctors say Sudafed is a no-no, but it's on my list. Anyway. Did you know the only way you can get Sudafed on post is through prescription? I think that if my head had been clear I would have realized that, but being pregnant and sick I didn't. Fortunately, Joe found a very nice spouse at the PX who told him to go to a nearby drugstore.

By the time the poor guy got home {he loathes shopping, by the way}, I was in tears. Just minutes before he pulled in, I had laid down on the couch with my corn bag {aka cordless heating pad} on my head to relieve some of the sinus pressure. As soon as I laid down, the preggo hormones kicked in and I started crying. Many, many tears. I felt horrible, I had sent my husband who hates shopping to 3 different stores for medicine that I wasn't even sure I should be taking. Oh, I cried. He came home, asked how I was and I cried some more. As if he hadn't had enough to deal with already!!!

I didn't get any sleep Friday night. I couldn't breathe through my nose, I kept coughing, and - my all time favorite - I kept getting up to use the bathroom. Around 0500 Saturday morning, Joe's alarm went off. We had to be at church for a servant training thing at 0900 and I suppose he wanted to get up early. I slept until 0700. When I finally joined him in the land of the living, I found that the entire kitchen was clean, he'd picked up the living room, and he was folding laundry. Y'all, I almost cried. {Again with the hormones.} The house was basically a disaster when we went to bed but I had absolutely no energy to do anything about it.

The training session at church wasn't long, but I felt like I was being tortured by having to wear actual clothes and be around people. It wasn't until after lunch that things took a rough turn. I got so, so nauseous. I was hot and sick and it just wasn't pretty. I'm guessing now that my body was telling me to eat but because I'm sick I just didn't get it. Joe had to go back to church to run sound, so I was left at home to deal with it. For the most part it was manageable; I was just really, really hot.

He got back around 7:30 pm and we watched a little TV before both of us were about ready to crash. While washing my face before bed, I got nauseous again. Yaaay. And then I did something really stupid. I decided I'd take some cough medicine. I knew better, but I thought nothing bad would come of it. Liquid meds to a number on me because I was constantly sick as a kid and ev-er-y-thing is cherry flavored. Blech. So cherry flavored Robitussin brings back bad memories. I only gagged after shooting the medicine, but that was bad enough. And it pretty much set the tone for the rest of my night.

I woke up around 11 thinking vomit was imminent. No dice. Fortunately, Joe came to my rescue and helped me back to bed. I'm not sure why, but I was extremely weak. Then came 2 am. I was hot, nauseous and tired of feeling sick. My home remedy for nausea is about 1/4 tsp of baking soda mixed with about a cup of water. Drink it and it balances the pH in your tummy. Since I was so weak, I knew I couldn't make it to the kitchen to get it. What's a girl to do? Wake her hubby. I hated to wake him, but I had no choice. Unfortunately, the baking soda trick can be a bit of a toss up if you've already felt sick most of the day. I knew this but really hoped for the best.

And at 2 am my body succumbed to morning sickness. I suppose I should be glad that I made it almost 11 weeks before "praying to the porcelain god," as a former band director of mine once said. It was absolutely awful, but I have the best husband ever. He got up with me twice, handed me cold, wet washcloths, wiped my neck and back, and helped me back to bed both times. He never complained and just stood by my side the whole time.

Today has been better, but the cold is still hanging around. The Sudafed keeps my symptoms at bay and I've been doing nothing but resting on the couch all day. I said I would have been fine if I'd gotten pregnant when Joe came home on R&R last year... Now I'm really glad that didn't happen. It's nice to have someone to take care of you when you think you're on your death bed and can hardly move. Hey, how about that, God really does know best! ;-)

Now, if you'll excuse me I'm going to continue resting on the couch and hopefully recover from this cold soon. I hope your weekend was so much better than mine!