Strep throat. Nothing strikes fear into the heart of a kid like the threat of strep throat.
Now I remember why.
On Thursday morning, I woke up feeling off–my head felt foggy, my muscles ached. At 6 a.m., I asked Amy to get up with Jane so I could sleep for a bit longer to try to ward of the impending sickness. Turns out, sleep only delayed the inevitable. By 1 p.m., when Amy mercifully came home from work, I knew that I was really sick. My fever already reached 100.3. From there, even on a steady dose of Tylenol, it climbed to 103.1 before it finally broke at 10 p.m.
Fevers, chills, hot flashes, and throbbing achiness… and an almost 1 year old to take care of. Those factors can only equate to agony. I do not remember ever being in that much seemingly inescapable pain. And it all seemed so hopeless. Jane wanted me to play. Moving around hurt. She still need to be fed, and held, and loved. And I just wanted to cry. Awful.
When people used to tell me how much my life would change after I had Jane, I thought they were idiots. Of course my life would change. I understood the ways in which it would change. Even after Jane was born, I felt like I had adequately prepared myself for what it meant to completely care for another human being. But OH MY LORD… people forgot to mention that kids don’t go away when you get sick. Jane wouldn’t issue a time out. I could hear her chanting “No mercy” as I lay moaning on the floor next to her tunnel, which she had already crawled through 101 times. It was hell.
At this point in the chaos, Amy was stricken down with the plague, too. That’s right. Both parent figures down for the count by Thursday evening.
Oh, but wait… at this point, my throat didn’t even hurt! Nope, not until Friday morning did I wake up feeling much better… except for the thousands of tiny knives sliding down my throat when I swallowed. But 3 p.m. I was at a walk-in clinic begging for mercy.
Mercy came in a pediatric dose of bubble gum flavored amoxicillin to treat strep (although no one is really sure I have strep at all… it is just an educated guess).
I am not exaggerating when I say that hell is strep throat with an almost 1 year old. Absolute torment. But it is over; we are going to be okay.
Now, if I can just get Jane to stop chanting “no mercy,” everything will be back to normal around here.
Pensive Pea 
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