Back in the Saddle Again!

So just in case you are wondering...I really am ALIVE and still kickin' after one of the toughest weeks in a long time. (Although I am quite sure some of the teachers/parents at school may have thought I skipped out on Mike and the kids and headed back to the states....I'm here to set the record straight....I am still on the Mountain!)   Thanks to Mike for keeping everyone up to date on my health status...mostly Choppie and Poppie and Mom Schaefer as I knew their little minds would be whirling with all sorts of swine flu media hype and wondering just how was I coping???  Hmmm, don't think it was swine flu...cow flu...maybe?  Don't think it was a parasite either, I think it was some bad virus that glommed onto John Gustavo and then found its way to me after a week of caring for him.  (See my previous post re: underwear :)

I dare not wish this on anyone!  John fell sick with two days of fever followed by a week plus of diarreah.  After his 5th day of the runs, and my first day with slight fluish symptoms (a week ago Sunday), we decided we better get him into the clinic to rule out any type of parasite.  We left the clinic with orders to return the next day with a stool sample (ya right, tell me how I am suppose to pull that one off with a 3-year old...ain't happenin'.), a urine sample and an order for blood work.  Monday rolled around and I could not get out of bed.  Generally, my body temp is below 97.5, I started the day with a 99.2 and ended up with a temp over 102 the next day.  The bone pain was excrutiating; and the boys jumping over me, debuting their latest gymnastic move on my bed, didn't help the situation.  Finally, after sweating through three t-shirts in the night, my fever broke but left me with 6 days of diarreah and stomach cramps; like nothing I can remember.  Oh how I longed for my bathroom back in the little green house on Tuttle Avenue.  Instead, I hunkered down in my 'now' bathroom with my Spanish verb book in hand and stared either at the concrete floor below me or up above at the cob webs and mold infested ceiling.  Take your pick!  And let us not forget the dreaded toilet paper...in the garbage my dear friends, not down the toilet.  I made sure Mike had a little package with him every morning on his way to school last week which he could easily toss into the dumpster across from our pasture gate.  He was a trooper through my illness, coming home from school early, keeping me well hydrated, keeping the boys out of my hair so I could rest and that is only the beginning!  

Thursday came and I simply could not function so Mike stayed home from school and secured other teachers to take his morning classes until Gaudy arrived at noon.   Gaudy was a tremendous help, keeping up with the Schaefer laundry and running down to the Pulperia to fetch me gingerale and Gatorade.  I missed family in a bad way but found comfort in the offerings from the community, as Mike mentioned in a previous post, everything from chicken soup, lemonade, brownies, bread, plant leaves for tea, probiotics, yogurt and goat's milk to make more ourselves (yogurt that is), vitamins and DVDs to keep the kids occupied.  All so helpful!

I finally made it out of bed this past Saturday and yesterday stepped outside for the first time in 2 1/2 weeks to walk the kids to school.  

  

Somehow Mike and Michael escaped this bug...how? who knows?...perhaps the luck of the draw.  As for me and John, we've done our time, so stay well my friends and know that I'll be waiting in the wings to come to your rescue with perhaps some chicken soup or a Powerade in hand.

Signed: S