Soooo, as usual, weird things surround my family. We waited and waited to make the decision to travel for Thanksgiving for a number of reasons (some of them are furry). After finding a pet-friendly hotel, we decided to book it. Within one day of doing this, my daughter gets sick. This is the child who battled earache after earache until tubes were put in as a baby and then miraculously seemed fine after that. This is the child who has allergies, but other than the occasional cold, manages to make perfect attendance almost every year in school. This sickness has wiped her out. It starts out like a cold with a fever. It progresses to sounding like pneumonia, but it feels like mono. This is one of the nastiest things I have seen.
Within the first week, it sounded like a cold, and when my husband took her to the doctor, the doc said cold. Okay, fine. A cold. The second week, she still was feverish and coughing so this time I took her to the doctor. Pre-pneumonia…not sure what that means, but that was what he said. He gave us a prescription for some antibiotics and said within 48 hours, she would be better and we could go on our trip. Hmm. Okay. Wednesday came around and the kids were all excited to go on the family trip. They packed their bags and I tried calling the hotel to cancel. They wouldn’t let me out of it saying the “window” had passed. Hmm. Not sure about this trip. I took a nap. I didn’t want to go. Something was off. LISTEN to yourself if you ever feel this way. Husband came home and was ready to go. I relented.
When we got in the car to make the drive, I hoped it would be okay. About an hour into the drive we almost ended up in a three car accident, but my husband swerved and we avoided it. Everything I loved was in the car with me. Everything. Talk about singing Jesus Take the Wheel…it’s not a joke, but I started saying that 2 years ago and it stuck. Whew. When we finally checked in, the kids were hungry and my daughter looked flushed. I was a nervous wreck. I wanted to check back out immediately and drive the three and a half hours back home. Everyone talked me into staying the night. Fine. We’ll stay. The only soup they were out of was what my daughter ordered. Of course. The irritations were adding up and I could feel my mood slipping out of my grasp. I tried very hard to hold it together.
Back at the hotel, my daughter starting coughing worse. All night long, on the hour, every hour. The dogs moved every time she coughed. By six a.m. I was up and packing. We are leaving and nothing anyone says will make me change my mind. My daughter was lethargic and fine with my decision. At this point, the little one was now sniffling. I promised to make everything better once I got back home. I could make hot tea, put the humidifier on, and tuck people in the way I wanted to. Whew. I was exhausted. I went down and checked out. They actually were pleasant and refunded me the other nights. I think my red eyes scared them. That and my ferocious pack of wiener dogs.
On the road again…on Thanksgiving. It was a beautiful day and the girls seemed happy to be going home. They would miss the festivities with my family, but they understood why I made the decision. I was putting them first whether they realized it or not. We made it home just in time to get to the store. I actually cooked and had it ready in an hour. Wow. Ahhh. Is it time to rest now? I think so. Lesson learned. Listen to yourself.
“A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.” ~George Moore
