Catching up with the House Of Illness
OK, here’s the short version: I stayed out the week in Boston, despite wishing I could have gone to North Bay. It was the Australians and Israelis (not to mention Californians, and a couple of ex-Southern Midwesterners) that had come to Boston to meet with me that decided things.
I did send the piece I posted below to the memorial, where it was read as part of the eulogy. Apparently it was very well received. (We also sent flowers, which felt weird considering how Gerry would have reacted to that, but it’s not about him at this point.)
The plan was to finish the week, drive home, and then head out to North Bay early this week for a “after the rush” visit. That was before the House of Sickness and the latest attack of the Monster Snow.
Let’s review: I was feeling like crap , and then thought I was feeling better. Sarah had conjunctivitis, but it was cleared up before I left.
Then I got conjunctivitis on the drive to Boston. Trish got my cold–note that this is the second time I’ve left her for a work trip and left her sick with my cold. Her case was pretty short, though, well over by Wednesday.
The drops cleared my conjunctivitis up by Tuesday, but the sickness seemed to come back during the week while I was in Boston. At first I thought this was just the INSANE dryness in the hotel–which kept me waking up every couple of hours with extreme pain in my throat, etc. (I did try all the usual tricks–using the shower’s steam, hanging up wet towels, etc. I actually hung a completely soaked towel up, and it was BONE DRY in around 4 hours.)
Anyway, while the week went very well from a work perspective, and while it was great to see my brother, I basically didn’t get any decent sleep all week. This, in turn, probably is the reason why the cold I thought was beat kicked back in by Friday. For a bonus, I also had a return of a slight case of conjuctivitis.
So, I got home Friday and by Saturday morning, I was actually FULL ON SICK again. Trish somehow picked up the conjunctivitis, and has it worse than either Sarah or I ever had it–she’s a two-eyed pus machine.
Sarah, of course, is fine.
So, I’m back to being sick, Trish is in the sorriest state I’ve ever seen, and now it’s apparently going to be another one of those 18 inch overnight snows. Which, if it actually comes, will mean we all stay home tomorrow. Oh well, I hope we at least keep power.

February 13th, 2006 at 12:16 pm
I feel your pain man. Cindy just got over pink eye. Also, we had her Sister, Brother in law and their two kids over for three days last week after a monster snow storm took out out their power (for the entire 3 days). The germ carrying children in turn made me sick, and I have spent the last few days with a sore throat and non-stop runny nose. Thank god I am not cheap (like Cindy) and splurged on the super soft kleenex last time we stocked up.
February 13th, 2006 at 12:42 pm
I also have been known to splurge on the +Lotion Kleenex when I have super-runny nose. (Do not use this to clean your glasses, FYI. Smeared forever.)
Trish just can’t bring herself to do it–her thrift-sense prevents it or something.
February 13th, 2006 at 1:53 pm
Could describe the sudden moment of panic you must have had when you couldn’t open your eye? Seriously, I have recurring night terrors that involve not being able to open my eyes because they are ‘pussed’ shut. And it would seem that the first reaction to this happening for real would be quite dramatic.
February 13th, 2006 at 2:04 pm
Well, it wasn’t that the whole eyelid was immobile, or that the lid was stuck to my eyeball. It was just that the top and bottom lids were stuck to each other, because the crust had formed across the opening while I slept.
So, I could feel my eye moving, and my lids attempting to open, and I knew that something was sticking them together. It wasn’t as terrifying as if I couldn’t move them, for example.
I just reached up and pulled the grossness off, and then I could open the eye. It wouldn’t focus, of course, since it was full of pus–that migh have shocked me, if I hadn’t known about Sarah having just had conjunctivitis. As it was, I made my way to the bathroom, cleaned out the pus, and blinked until I could see. Then I knew I had to start with the drops.
It was never a really horrible experience, but primarily because I knew what was going on the whole time–there wasn’t the unexplained and helpless thing that makes for horror.