Flu Hits

The phone rings and Caller I.D. tells me it’s the school nurse. My 7-year-old has a fever…again. My 2-year-old has already come home from daycare on one of my two work days, but he is asleep. He went down hard as soon as I took his shoes off at the front door. I call my husband who, SURPRISE!, is on his way home, too. But, why is he on is way home? HE also has a fever. I have to count my blessings, even if they are little ones. My husband can pick up my eldest son from school on his way home to his own sick bed.

Normally, I would not have such a chip on my shoulder about all of this illness, but this has been going on for weeks now. I had it last week and am now feeling sick again after only two days of feeling like my old self, more or less. It is as if I can see the germs hiding, waiting for their chance to jump on one of us and wreak havoc with our immune systems. I picture them as one of those mucus characters on a TV. commercial. Disgusting.

So, do I clean again or just wait until everyone’s well and fumigate the house? Do I just call everyone in sick tomorrow thereby losing another day of work to the illusive virus going through my house? Do I just call all of my editors and tell them I cannot make any of my deadlines this week? (THAT’S not going to happen.)

I decide to put on another pot of soup, lentil this time, and worry about tomorrow in the morning. I’ll do what I have been doing. I will sneak into their rooms and rest a hand on their foreheads, and hope they will not be startled awake. If they stay home, I will be grateful I am home working rather than having to deal with a boss at an office somewhere else. After all, this is why I work at home, to be here for my family. The rewards definitely outweigh the drawbacks.

To learn more about the flu, go to FluFacts. There you can answer a few questions to help determine if you, or your child, has the flu or just a bad cold. Then, after everyone recovers, go to What To Expect.com where you will learn how to kill all of the germs so, hopefully, the bug will not come back to bite you anytime soon.