Nurse Mommy

Here we go again!  Luckily I worked out hard over the weekend and I think I did so because I anticipated that this day would come.  Saturday's soccer game was quite cold and ended with a light drizzle. The children were spending the weekend with their father which meant I had no control over what would happen.

Miles battled the entire week with congestion, but Nurse Mommy managed to keep him strong and healthy enough to not miss one day of school.  Nia had missed 2 days of school over the past couple weeks, but again, Nurse Mommy was working hard to keep her healthy.  N.M. is the queen of "beefing up security!"  I wholeheartedly believe in proper nutrition and preventative efforts to ATTEMPT to ward off unwanted germs and illnesses.

When the children left me on Friday evening, I had no idea what their weekend would comprise of, and that always makes me a bit uneasy, but I learned a long time ago that the more I stressed and agonized over the situation, the more I would only make MYSELF crazy.  When I first arrived at the field on Saturday morning, all bundled up myself, I immediately noticed that my son was not properly dressed.  His congestion was very apparent, and his hands were very cold.  Always remembering that the methotrexate injection that he gets weekly, suppresses his immune system, I am always erring on the side of CAUTION when it comes to his health, how he eats and how he dresses.  I immediately took off my gloves and made him wear them.

After the game was over, the winds had kicked up and the drizzle started and my first thought was, "time to leave and go home."  But, they were not coming home with me, so I had no say so.   I prolonged my departure, but realized that their father was not rushing to leave despite the rain, and as I was proceeding to get more and more stressed, I decided it was time for me to just leave and not continue to witness what I knew would inevitably make me "lose it."   I have no idea how long they remained out in the cold and rain playing, but I would later hear on that evening that "Nia is coughing a little."

We all know that rain and cold does not "cause" one to get sick, however, if one's immune system is not strong, the cold and rain wear one down even further, and consider that Nia had been running up and down playing soccer, probably sweating underneath the layers.   And remember, she is my "picky" eater.

Knowing how she is, I know what I have to do to keep her as well as possible.  I make it my life's mission to do this on a daily basis, analyzing what I feed her with purpose for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Those soups I love to make over and over again, have a ton of great "goodness" in them because I know it's my best "ONE" shot for the day with her.

Sunday morning, I called to speak to the children and I was told that Nia was in the shower, and I immediately knew what that meant -- she was coughing the night before.   I spoke to her father and asked how she was doing and he said, "she coughed a bit but she is fine."  He said he was giving her cough med and mucinex.  Wonderful.   I then offered, "can I make some soup for her."   He responded, "no thank you, we are fine."

Something told me (most likely it was God) to still break out the SOUP ARSENAL, and so on Sunday I prepared 2 pots of soup.  One Chicken Noodle Vegetable, and a Chicken Brown Rice Vegetable.  

Monday morning before school, I called to speak to the children and again I was told that she is in the shower.  GOTCHA!!!!  I know she is not fine, but she is not with me, so what can I do.   Her father took her to school and I picked her up and we left straight from school to head over to the farm for pumpkin picking with her fellow Brownies.  I noticed she was coughing, but she was so happy to be with her friends, AND I had committed to take 2 other girls with us, so I had to follow through.  It was only 1 1/2 hrs, so I did not worry too much about it.  

I was not going to believe that she "suddenly" started to cough.  As the evening progressed, it got worse, and it was "one of those nights!"  Violent coughing attacks.  I made her drink so much, she had to get up to go to the bathroom about 3 times during the night and woke up at 4 a.m.  At that time, we just stayed up, had tea, lots more water, until we dozed off for a bit.  YES, I was soooooooooo tired!   Miles ended up coming into the living room where we were at about 6:45 a.m. and woke me up (as I slept sitting up on one end of the couch with Nia on the other end).  She remained asleep........... only for another 20 minutes to wake again coughing.

So here we are, another day, home together,  and I will be Nurse Mommy doing "my thing" to get her well.   She already had some lovely "Mommy made" soup, tea, water, some vitamins and now we will make a lovely bath for her with some lovely soothing eucalyptus oils.

A cough is a natural reflex that protects your lungs.  Well, we will work on loosening up this cough and I can already anticipate that it will not go away in one day.   Nia has had this issue since she was about 2 years old.  One day I came home from work, and found my nanny (it's hard to find great nannies.  She informed me by phone that Nia was not well, but she really did not convey the true gravity of the issues - she did not know) at the time, holding her as she was breathing erratically and her body was jerking.  At the immediate sight of her, I knew something was very wrong and quickly took her to the emergency room, where we stayed for many hours until they stabilized her, and that was when we were introduced to the nebulizer.  Over the past year, she seemed to be growing out of it, but I truly feel that this time, her issues are based on "lack of proper" care.   A situation left to get out of control.  I felt bad keeping her home today given the fact that it's picture day at school (and she was going to look so beautiful) but I certainly could NOT send her to school with this obnoxious coughing that she is doing.

Gosh, it's only October -- as I reminded her father.  "Campbell" Soup for breakfast and morning showers will not heal my precious little one.   The funny thing is, her and her brother always look forward to coming back to me when they are sick.   I used to resent the fact that I was always left to deal with the children's illnesses, but I also know that I will do whatever it takes to get them WELL and HEALTHY again - I give them my very best.  I believe in my program and anything less is just not good enough under the circumstances. 

I know that my ex-husband relies on me to do what he knows I will do - get the children straight.  I can't even count the amount of Mondays that a sick child was given back to me after they spent the weekend with him.  There have been nights that I have had to jump out of bed, and go and get Nia because she was "too much" for him to handle when she is sick.   A little over a month ago, Miles had an accident at 10 pm at night, tripped, fell, hit his head, and had to go to the emergency room -- again, I had to go RESCUE my angel.  She was so distraught over what happened to her brother, seeing him bleeding and crying, she could not settle down.  But, once I got her back home, and held her tight, it was a matter of minutes before she was calm and drifted off to sleep.  The magic of Mommy! 

A situation left to get out of control... that is what one has to avoid when it comes to illnesses.  Some may think I am overly cautious, but if I sense something is "happening," I start to implement a "plan of action" to ATTEMPT to offset what may be happening!!!  Often times you will hear people say, "I think I am coming down with something."  They go home and take some aspirin or something and think that will "prevent" them from getting sick, and that will NOT work.  The key is to build up the IMMUNE SYSTEM as quickly and strongly as possible.

A compromised immune system will continue to be able to be further compromised.  This I learned recently.   You often hear some people say, "I never get sick," or "If I get sick, it's usually not a big deal."  A strong immune system works hard to keep the body well.  Then you have the other people who seem to get sick often, and that is because they are NEVER getting themselves STRONG enough to combat the NEXT germ or bout of something that is coming.

There are ALWAYS germs EVERYWHERE, and ALWAYS opportunities to get sick.   It takes a STRONG body to be able to fight and win the war!

I have a bible right by my bed, and right before I carried my beautiful daughter into the kitchen at 4 a.m. this morning, she asked if she could have it to say a prayer.  And this is what she said,  "Dear God, please help me to get better.  Please help me to remember to eat all of my lunch and drink all of my liquids when I am at school so that I can be healthy." 

She said more, but you get the gist!  We talk daily about how it's important for her to eat the healthy foods I give her, and drink all her liquids.  She told me, "Mommy, I don't like being sick."  I can appreciate that.  I don't like her being sick either.  She loves school and she especially LOVES her teacher! 

It seems reasonable to want to keep your children well so that they can be well enough to go to school to learn and do all the great things that children are supposed to be doing.  Since my efforts are only MY efforts to keep the children as well as possible, I can only do the very NEXT BEST reasonable thing...

Keep myself well, so I am able to take good care of them!   Luckily I worked out hard over the weekend.  Not getting great sleep last night is a downer, BUT, I feel very well and very strong.  I also feel great that Sunday was to be my exercise "rest" day, but I did not rest, so TODAY, I can rest with my darling baby!