Pity Party for One, Please!

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Can you see it? I am waving my white flag. It has been kind of a rough week. Yes it was Christmas and to this day is my favorite holiday. So I do wish everyone a belated Merry Christmas. It is a joyous holiday regardless of my personal circumstances. I do warn you the following rant is going to come off as whining. But this is a pity party and I do intend for it to be a good one. Where shall I start? Well this is my HealthFULL Journey so let me update you about my health. This week I suffered from the Seasonal Flu according to a doctor's best opinion. I believe it might have been the flu nicely topped off by a cold. But I am not the doctor just the patient. I suffered four full days of fever sprints. One would break and then another would quickly replace it. I have had no energy. I am on the sixth day and still find it completely draining to walk room to room. I have blown my nose through TWO kleenex boxes and am soon to start my third. I have been achy and chilled. It was actually the chills that drove me away from work Monday. I tried to keep warm by wearing my jacket at work and the sleeves drove me crazy. Every time the cool lining touched my hot skin I wanted to cry as if I was being burned. But ask me where I went after work on Monday? Did I go home? Oh no, I headed to my parents to nap for the afternoon. Because our house was being worked on by a plumber. A fantastic plumber, a kind plumber, but he was doing extensive work on our house. What work you may ask out of curiosity? Well, remember the hole in our bathroom. Our slight hole with a slight mention. Well that hole was joined by a new friend, another hole that was much bigger on the outside of our house. Our plumber was more determined than I to discover the leak. He proceeded to remove the siding from our house, pry into the board, and then drilled out our concrete slab to get a peek at our pipes. Well concrete when drilled turns into a fine dust, a powder that travels through the outside hole into the inside hole and covers our bathroom, our connected master bedroom and our living room with a gray sheet of dust. Yay! We spent that evening last Thursday (the evening before the predicted snowstorm) dusting and vacuuming and completing four loads of laundry so we could sleep in a semblance of home. I do blame myself as I asked and hoped for a clean house for Christmas. Be careful of what you ask for!!! So our plumber returned Monday to complete the outside work which he did. It looked wonderful. But Monday afternoon I could not handle drilling noise and drafty holes while I rested and recuperated. I returned home to a completed outside wall and then climbed into bed. I believe it was Tuesday I discovered that showers/baths provided a needed way to combat the chills. We were choosing not to use our master bath as we were resting the pipes to make sure that everything had a chance to set after recent construction and needs a good cleaning from the initial gray powder storm. It was then Midnight of Wednesday that I gained the strength of the Hulk and managed to break our one working shower's only handle. You might think "Oh no" and I say, "Oh yes even in my sickly state I can have the impossible happen." I was pretty devastated. So after a morning conference with my husband who pointed out that I broke our only working bath and reminded me our plumber was en route to visit his family for the holidays about six states away. He figured out how to make a temporary fix and stole the master bath's shower handle. We then headed to the Urgent Care. Because I am going to admit now. We don't get sick often and still haven't really found our family physician. So my wonderful husband had called several (I think five or six) doctor offices to try to make an appointment and their was no luck. So to the Urgent Care we went. We then waited ....and waited....and waited some more. I believe we spent over two and half hours waiting through the appointment and lab results. Mind you this is the day before Christmas Eve. We aren't completely done shopping, no presents wrapped, Christmas letters waiting to be sent, library books overdue, and Christmas decorations are not up. We had plans, numerous discussions, and here we were in the final hours of prep sick as can be. I with my flu and my husband with a cold well on the way. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh! Corey finished our shopping with detailed instructions and late Christmas Eve together we wrapped. Every couple presents we passed back and forth the anti bacterial foam. I was stubborn and with hubby's help put up our tree Christmas Eve. Now granted it comes in three parts and is pre-lit; but I was still as impressed as if we, ourselves, displayed the Rockefeller Center Tree. We did enjoy Christmas Day with the family though I was under Dr's orders " No hugs, no kisses, no sharing spoons, avoid contact with the kids, and no holding the baby(my youngest niece)". I am a hugger. But I got through the holiday following the orders to a T. I had big plans for today even being down for the count all week I figured this weekend I would get the Christmas Cards done and out. No such luck. This flu is not an easy bird to kick. But it was a big lesson this week. I haven't been grateful for the Health I do have and that Health really does matter. Without our Health everything else stands still. It is our Health that mostly dictates our abilities. So though I am way off the HealthFULL Journey I do look eagerly upon my return. May your HealthFULL Journey deserve appreciation and that illness stays far away from you and those you hold dear. 'Til we meet again. . .