Swine Flu - A Blessing in Disguise?
Yesterday at 3pm my grandmother passed away. She's had heart problems for some time now and the original hope was they could do surgery to correct one of her valves. However, her lungs weren't strong enough and they finally ruled out the option of surgery. They sent her home Friday and hospice care was going to start today (Monday) to help my grandfather in caring for her. My mom and aunt went down to help over the weekend before hospice care started. But on Sunday afternoon she passed away. Thankfully my mom and aunt are there to help my grandfather grieve.
Yesterday I was a mess. I went through waves of sadness. It didn't help that yesterday (ironically) was grandparents day. I knew my grandmother was sick, but I didn't expect this so suddenly. I was hoping to go visit her in the next couple weeks. The last time I saw her was thanksgiving. Jeff was very supportive and we canceled our plans, got takeout for dinner and watched a movie before going to bed early.
This morning I felt a little bit more composed, even though my face was swollen like a balloon from crying. But driving to school I lost it. It didn't help that I woke up feeling sore and achy everywhere and had a cough. I talked to my mom and found out they were planning on holding the funeral/celebration of life this saturday.
Jeff called around 10 and told me I needed to go to the doctor ASAP. One of our friends had gone to the hospital and likely had swine flu. I went to the clinic on campus and they told me I had a 50-50 chance that what I had was swine flu. They told me I needed to go home and stay home from school for a couple days. Jaime (my carpool buddy) stayed home with a fever and then went to the doctor and they told her that more likely than not she has swine flu and they told her to stay home all week on quarantine.
Having all this happen at once is unfortunate, but I think getting sick is really a blessing in disguise. I don't have a fever, I don't have a sore throat, etc. I just have aches which tylenol has helped with, and a small cough that tea is helping. But I got to come home today and relax and take a nap and just kind of deal with things. I didn't have to go to school and pretend everything was fine. I communicated with all my teachers and then took a couple hour nap. I got to talk to my mom again this afternoon - she and my aunt were sorting through my grandmother's jewelry and such at my grandfather's request. It was good to hear her smile and laugh.
