The Plague... or something like it!

Pain and sickness are the same. Outside of the situation, you simply do not grasp the entirety of the problem. Even if you have gone through it yourself! Take childbirth for example, in the moment you swear to yourself  that you will NEVER do this again! The pain and exhaustion and sheer overwhelming trauma of it are all consuming. However within a year, months, or even minutes for some brave souls... you think to yourself, "it wasn't that bad, I could do that again." Some part of us, deep down, knows that that is a bald faced lie. But for the most part, we repress the bad stuff and focus on the good.

Sickness is much of the same. In the moment I lose all sense of time. It seems to go on forever and my misery is palpable. I promise myself we will wash our hands more, bring hand sanitizer with us to the store, in our times of sorrow I even promise myself I'll never leave my house again. But the sad reality is that within a few days or weeks our lives resume as normal and we are once again injected to the heart of society and its vast arsenal of diseases. I am discouraged to admit a pattern has emerged. Yes I suppose it is unavoidable. Alas, I cannot lock us up in our house never to leave again. However during this horrible season of colds and flus we get better, then sick again, then better, then sick. The small joy of getting together with family and friends is quickly dampened with the stark reality of the germs that were shared and the ensuing infection that results.

As you may have correctly assumed, we are sick. Every single one of us. From baby girl crying in the distance, refusing to be put down and smearing her snot all over my shirt--to myself feeling faint and nauseous and like I am going to cough out my innards. My counters are covered in food. I suppose I feel as though if I simply leave it out I don't have to prepare it. Buns are left in bags and when the kids are hungry they simply help themselves to what they can find on the counter or in the fridge. Apple cores litter my floors, half-eaten stale buns are hidden in the folds of their blankets. Plates, crafts, play dough, and toys are strewn about the table and the floor. Diapers are tossed on the floor like land mines to be avoided in the middle of the night. A bath tub full of cold water sits brewing with yesterdays filth while pee from my potty training toddler is forming a dried crust underneath my toilet. Clothes lay in wild abandon throughout the house and the piles of laundry are forming a small mountain beside my unused washing machine. Cold cups of coffee sit about the house like glasses of water from the little girl in "Signs" (think Mel Gibson and alien invasion). Toilet paper sits in clumps around our beds and we all live in the blessed comfort of our pyjamas. The batteries on our phones and tablet are left on empty as the kids play them ceaselessly all day long. The TV rests in the "on" position and I am sure our eyes are somewhat glazed from the lack of outdoor air and activity. Yes, this is the residence of sickness, from the people to the resulting pandemonium that is my house we practically scream DISEASE!

And so it is that in the moment I beg with myself to never leave the house. I reason that this is not worth the sips of coffee as I visit with my friends whilst my kids swap spit on the nearest toy. I promise that grocery trips will be a team effort with the strategy of one adult sitting in the car with the kids while the other fills the grocery cart. That I will stock my purse with sanitizer and be a nazi with drinking our kefir each day. But the naivety has left and the veteran is in its place. And the veteran shakes her head in the sad but inevitable knowledge that in a week all promises will be forgotten and life will resume once more.

Happy flu season everyone! May your hygiene practises be vigilant and your intestinal flora be strong! :)