Present Day

Lately I've been watching some series about plots way back in the day -- the days of Henry VIII and Marie Antoinette, etc.  As a mother, I watch these movies with far less romantic ideals that I used to, but instead a true dose of reality.

We have recently been hit with illness after illness in our household.  Thankfully no one has contracted the flu (knock on wood) but a few Thursdays ago, the children came down with a horrible stomach bug, which took over ten days for them to fully recover.  I took ill with the same stomach bug a week after they did, before the kids were fully recovered.  Then, the following Monday, Howard came down with a fever and runny nose but seemed to recover quickly.  Tuesday, he split his head open and required stitches.  Wednesday, he developed spots on his hands and feet and was not his usual jovial self (allowing us to realize that Monday's fever was actually Hand Foot Mouth Disease).  The same day, Howard was also fighting a runny nose and cough, and Caroline spiked a fever and started having a runny rose.  Thursday, Caroline, Tracey and I had fevers and Tracey's nose began to run.  Friday, no one was 100% with lots of tissues, movies, and naps, and Hubby started to get congested.  By Saturday my hands and feet had the spots and Hubby's nose was running like a faucet.  By Sunday the kids seemed to be on the upswing but still runny noses, Hubby, while still congested seems to be getting better, but my hands were still covered in blisters, and upper respiratory congestion finally caught up with me.

Our whole family is coming up on three full weeks of battling one or another illness and its exhausting.

All of a sudden, I watch these old movies and I really understand how a whole family could get wiped but with a simple stomach bug.

When we got our stomach bug, we were washing sheets, pajamas, clothes, bedding, towels, everything in hot water for days.  We were sending Hubby to the store for soda crackers, juice, yogurt, probiotics, and pedialyte.  We inflated an airbed in the family room to encourage the kiddos to rest as much as possible, and made sure they were drinking lots of sippy cups of juice and water.  We went through boxes of tissues, and many many disposable diapers as their little systems got back to normal, and were very grateful for the city trash pickup.  Our kids took warm baths, sometimes several a day and were washed head to toe to try to keep them clean and combat these germs that their immune system was fighting.

How did families in olden times survive?  I can't imagine the work load involved when one or more family members were sick, and then how did you clean up after the illness?  There was no spare bedding, and washing things in hot water and then drying them to be used again took days.  No one could run to the store to get yogurt to help little tummies recover, and cloth diapers are laborious even when children are not sick.  I understand how entire families were wiped out from a "simple" sickness.  Even a few decades ago, mothers would have had to run to the laundry mat with soiled sheets, with the sick little ones in tow.

I have never been more grateful to live in the day and age in which we live today.  Yes, we have our dangers and our problems... but we have every comfort, medicine, vitamin, and vaccine.  We have doctors available to us any time we need them... and our family even has two doctors on speed dial in our family who are really available whenever we need them.  We have every comfort when sick, and precaution to prevent illness and yet we are still sick, and fighting several illnesses while our immune system is compromised.

I am so grateful to be a mother in present day.