Saturday

I know it's technically Sunday, but I'm posting about what happened Saturday (hence the title).

I went to Urgent Care after a horribly painful night where I had thoughts of violently removing a portion of my face as a good alternative to the pain I was experiencing from sinus pressure.  I was in tears and my husband kindly reminded me that crying was just going to make my stuffiness worse and therefore the pain worse.  True, but once the tears were rolling, it's hard to make them stop on command.  I ended up getting a small amount of sleep with an ice pack on my face for the rest of the night.

Anyway, the doctor got one look up my nostrils and coiled back in shock over just how congested I was.  I've never had a doctor do that, so it must have been pretty jammed up there.  My ears were okay and my throat was just slightly red.  My lungs were basically clear (which, for an asthmatic, is great news).

He did tell me that I waited just the right amount of time to come in.  He said that two weeks is when a viral issue becomes a bacterial one and medication will help.  So yay for me!  Yay for God allowing me to be too busy with J's illness to address my own any sooner.

I was prescribed amoxicillin for the infection and some various other congestion-clearing medications.  My voice is all wacky today, which should make for even more interesting singing in church than I usually have on Sundays.  But overall, I slept better last night and I can already feel some relief in the congestion I was having.

As for J, she woke up yesterday morning and felt better.  She actually stayed awake all day and ate portions of two meals.  She continued wanting a lot of water to drink, which is perfect.  We kept her in our room one more night (mostly because her bed still wasn't made back up yet and I didn't feel up for doing it) and other than a nightmare about hippos, which had her crawling into our bed (and off the floor) in the middle of the night, she slept all night long.

C was beginning to feel stuffy yesterday ... uh-oh.  I'm praying it doesn't go full-blown sickness in him.  He returns to work tomorrow and after a whole week off, he has a lot of catching up to do there, I'm sure.  But he was well enough to serve the breakfast he prepared at the monthly men's breakfast and he gave the message!  My dad got to go, too.  C said he had some encouraging and positive things to say to him about both the food and the talk -- I'm sure it's always nice for men to hear good stuff from a father-in-law.

I got news from H's coach last night that the team won their second Playoff game yesterday!  The poor team has worked so hard this season and had only won one of its games so far.  So with H's retreat this weekend, the coach said it was okay if he missed the games yesterday.  I'll be so excited to greet H home tonight with the good news that his team is still in it for next week's second round playoffs.

As for how we spent the day yesterday, S and I took my sister, nieces and mom and had lunch at Schlotzsky's, browsed Hobby Lobby (Mom bought thread to mend some family clothing as she usually offers to do when she's here - so nice) and found some good clothing deals at Savers for just about everyone in the family.

I bought a used book at Saver's geared toward an act of defiance by O on Friday, called Being Destructive by Joy Berry,  to help him understand why it's not a good idea to pour glue and glitter all over his teen sister's desk and books when he's mad at me.  We did not get the opportunity to have him clean up his mess like the books suggests (and like we usually have him do), because S had already cleaned it up in hopes of saving her recently favorite book: Before You Meet Prince Charming: A Guide to Radiant Purity.  Which she could not.  All the pages had been glued (and glittered) together on the top edge.  She cried.

Meanwhile, my dad has been busy chasing moths and fixing the shower at my sister's house, which had some issues.  I'm sure she's been glad to have his help!  It's been a big help to us, too, because we are complete novices at bathroom repair and that's been hanging over our heads for a while with no good ideas on what to do.  Our parents leave tomorrow ... I pray they take the moths with them, so D can have peace of mind.

Today, we have church service and later, N's birthday party.  It's a full day, but hopefully everyone is well enough to endure it.  I can't wait to try one of C's strawberry chiffon princess cupcakes he made for the party.  They look so good!  I may need to post about them after the fact, because he even invented a clever serving tray that doubles as another birthday gift for N.  But I'll wait till after the party (or later in the week) to divulge the secret.

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I don't think many of you have read this post yet, so I'm just going to tack on an update.  J woke this morning and vomited three more times.  This is day 8 in this saga and I'm getting frustrated that we are no further in understanding what's causing her illness than we were on day one.  I'm home with her while C took the other kids to church and he'll probably stay with her when I take the other kids to their cousin's birthday party later.  It's very sad.  She's very sad.

But through it all, I admire her courage and positive attitude.  If I were in her shoes, I don't think I'd handle it as gracefully as she has.

In an even sadder turn of events, she asked me to refill her ice water this morning while she laid on the couch watching Babe.  I did and thought I screwed the lid on top.  But when I handed it to her, the lid popped off and I dumped ice water all over her.  Poor thing!  I'm making it worse!  But she just calmly said, "Um, I think I'll go change."  I apologized like ten times, but she just said, "I know it wasn't on purpose.  I'm okay."

Our sweet, sick girl.  Please pray for her.

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Make that four times -- and the fourth was an hour after we gave her another anti-nausea pill.

For the first time, she looked at me and said, "Mama, I'm really scared."

My heart is breaking.  I feel helpless as a mama to do anything for her.