i never get sick, but...

everyone i know (including jared and me) always say this. we never get sick. we never need to go to the doctor. it's just a minor discomfort, i'll drink my OJ and take a nap and be fine.

i'm learning my lesson that an early trip to the doc really can help. last year i got a cough about a week after thanksgiving. after christmas i was still coughing. it was annoying for everyone around me. (and gross, no one wants to be around someone hacking all the time). when i started having sharp pain in my ribs when i coughed, i decided to go get it checked out. i had read online that you can actually break a rib or bruise your lung from coughing too hard. after an hour in the minute clinic and 3 hours in the urgent care, it was confirmed i had a pretty bad case of pneumonia. i had to take a battery of pills that i wasn't comfortable with taking. probably should've gone in about the 10th day of coughing rather than after the 3rd week...

thursday morning i woke up with a slight sore throat. by thursday night, i was miserable. chills, aches, painfully sore throat. i get hit with what i assume to be sinuses once or twice a year and try to kill it with vitamins, rest, pain killers and OTC meds. we had friends coming in from out of town and really didn't want to be sick for them. i could function on friday, but didn't feel great. when i woke up saturday morning feeling like i had cotton in my throat, i thought...enough. went to a wonderful clinic (that does mostly house calls, but has 2 clinics...and the nurse practitioner is the owner and passionate about his business--he brags on his no-wait policy..that sure beats minute clinic or urgent care!) he took one look in my throat and said "ooh...that's not sinuses. you have pharyngitis" what? what's that? is it contagious. basically, it's the inflammation of pharynx (throat). but it all boiled down to...strep. jared had just started feeling bad, so he took a quick look-see at him, and sure enough, he had the beginning stages of it too. so we're both on amoxicillin and by monday night we should be out of the contagious stage. we're quarantined in the house until then. monday night we'll disinfect as much as we can, do a ton of laundry and get new toothbrushes.

so far, alena shows no sign of being sick. it's too early for me to say she's out of the woods, but everything she eats is immune-supporting foods. tons of veggies, berries, a lot of water and plain yogurt, and no immune-suppressing refined sugars. if anyone can beat a sickness, i'm guessing it would be alena. jared and i would do well to eat the way we feed her. (however, we have a job to do finishing off her halloween candy!)

we had a great time with our friends from florida and hope they don't end up getting sick. meanwhile, i'm finding out what sunday morning tv is all about....not much, ha!

lesson learned: i won't try to out-smart my sickness. if i'm sick and know it's more than a mild cold, it's worth the trip to get it taken care of. of course, the best is to do better with the foods i eat and getting some fresh air to prevent it in the first place.