beyond the flu and meds

what a terrible feeling to be down with what i think is the worst flu i ever had. i'm on my fourth day now and still feeling weak, a tad better, but still weak. i have been absent from work for the past three days and i can't do much at home. but today at least, i'm okay enough to blog.

for the first two days, arianna was down with me. we were febrile together and feeling useless together, lying down in our germ-filled room. of course i didn't want arianna to be sick but being sick with her made the situation more tolerable, as i am sure she felt being sick with me was better than being sick alone. we tried to shoot our used tissue paper into the same waste basket between our beds. we took our medications together. we encouraged each other to get up for each meal. together, we were glued to cnn until obama was proclaimed first african-american president. we watched this defining moment in history together. certainly, it made the experience easier to bear.

fortunately, the boys in our family were strong enough to resist the flu bug. they had to sleep in a another room separate from ours. gary got some sniffles but didn't have to miss work. and roque kept wondering why i was taking such a long time to recover. i'm just so thankful for having them around. just yesterday morning, arianna complained of headache and without thinking twice, gary spread some liniment into his hands and massaged arianna's forehead, temples and scalp, as if not rushing to leave for work. roque, on the otherhand, checked up on us when he got home from school, "are you better yet?". the other night, he looked for my medicines and made sure i got them. last night, he continued to hug me across my tummy as i lay down even if i warned him not to stay too near me. "i want to sleep beside you already, can i?"

arianna is back in school today. and i woke up without fever this morning.