Today was another rare day Tonya took Katrina this morning, so I could go to Urgent Care for this persistent fever. We had cleaners coming, but that was OK: they'd be close to done when I'd get home, and then I'd get a precious baby-free REST until Katrina-pickup at 12:30.
That plan was complicated by our contractors coming this morning to whittle down the punchlist. Not a morning I really had time to mark out bathroom accessories, but I tried to swallow my aggravation. After all, when will they ever come back?
I went to Urgent Care and was seen pretty quickly. The doctor didn't find anything obviously wrong; a little nose and throat redness, but lungs and glands are clear. He said long fevers aren't usually viral and prescribed me an antibiotic.
Looking very forward to a solid hours' nap, I got home to discover that the cleaner was nowhere near done downstairs. Usually, it's a crew of two, but today it was just one lady, and she had at least an hours' worth of work to do downstairs. Usually then I'd nap upstairs, but the carpenters were here today! I was livid at this fate. Of ALL DAYS!
I ended up parking my car around the corner and trying to catch a few winks crumpled up in the driver's seat, furious at this awful confluence of circumstance hat tied up our upstairs and downstairs simultaneously.
When I picked up Katrina, she was all giggles and smiles, having had a great time at Tonya's. But she was clearly tired, and went down for a nice nap around 1pm, no complaining. But I still couldn't rest, because I was expecting our heating company to come check out why the kids' rooms are so cold and our room so hot upstairs. It was a 2-hour appointment window that wound up precisely coinciding with Katrina's nap. Again, no rest for me. My frustration was explosive. It was no one individuals' fault, but I was in desperate, desperate need to lie down and huddle under covers.
To make matters worse, the worst fever I've had yet started building this afternoon. I became so chilled and achy that all I could do this afternoon was sit around on the bed with baby. By evening, I was up over 103 and could barely move.
Dave took the boys out for dinner, and I tried to lie down for the tail end of another Katrina nap, which of course ended a few minutes later. Nursing her was excruciating because it meant peeling off layers, and I was really really chilled.
I was starting to get fearful, remembering articles I've read about people who die suddenly from mysterious bacterial infections. I've had temperatures before, but never any that lasted more than a few hours. For a long time there, I went years and years without a fever. They're more livable than I'd thought, as they're cyclical, and I'm almost getting used to a semi-feverish state of under 101 or so (and my normal temp is below 98 to start with). When a new one is building with chills, it's very hard to function. The down cycle of sweating is a lot easier to live with.
Finally this evening, this last temp broke and turned into a cold sweat, giving me enough energy just to type into this blog. Everything else has to wait: email, checking out the upstairs...even really enjoying my kids. I tried today to sit and talk with Gabriel while I warmed up with some tea, but couldn't concentrate and had to resort to a lot of "ohhh, I seeee" sorts of comments.
At least the contractors fixed my tub jets, yay! And the heat guy did balance the heat system upstairs, also a good thing. And, the house, while not clean, is under control. So in the end, I'm glad all the people working here today got done what they did. But couldn't they have arranged it a little less perfectly to prevent me from resting?
Gabriel's tried underpants the last 3 nights, the last two if which, he's been dry!!
I'm down to 100.5 now, a nice break after the misery of this afternoon. At least I distracted myself a little with pictures. And there is nothing like my beautiful baby's smile to cheer me up.
Katrina is starting to make the funniest sounds! And, some really funny facial expressions, sucking her whole lower lip in, for instance. This is so much like what Gabriel did as a baby that it's almost surreal. She has more energy and less focus than he did, but the similarities are still overwhelming. Everyone says they're all different -- let's hope so!
1/24/07
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