The Week That Was…
Another rollercoaster of a week, but that’s the new normal, isn’t it? My daughter turned 18 on Monday, which was a lovely way to begin the week. Celebrating was significantly quieter than any of us could have envisaged, but we still tried our best to make the occasion a special one with homemade pizza, lemon cheesecake and champagne.
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From that starting high, it was all downhill. My eldest son (16yo) was sick last week with a bad case of tonsilitis. It was apparent at the beginning of this week that the penicillin wasn’t working and he was getting worse. A change of antibiotics saw a minor improvement in his throat but then he began developing a range of other symptoms: abdominal pain, fatigue, a rash, swollen glands, puffy eyes. Back again to the doctor and a diagnosis of glandular fever has been made, pending blood test results. I’ve had friends with glandular fever and in every instance I’ve encountered it, it’s been debilitating and gone on for months. I guess there’s a flip side to online learning next term: at least he can do it from bed? He’s as thin as a rake as it is and six foot tall. He’s likely to blow over in a breeze at the end of it.
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I’ve been struggling this week with feelings of guilt. I am on leave from work as per my doctor’s recommendation due to chronic asthma and lung weakness. To give you some background, I have had recurrent bouts of pneumonia over the last ten years and three years ago, my left lung collapsed. A common cold is now disastrous for my lungs, and while I take a range of medication daily for my asthma to keep it under control, it’s never actually under control, as such. I feel effectively as though I have abandoned ship at the most difficult time. Schools are scrambling to set up online learning and working all hours to get this done. I asked my doctor if I could go back with less students. She recommended I remain isolated at home indefinitely. I know how sick I can get, the struggle to breathe, what it felt like to only have one lung working at 20% while the other was not functioning at all. I know what the recovery for that was like: slow. I still bear the effects. So I’m not going to argue with or go against medical advice, particularly when my doctor has said to me: you are exactly who we don’t want getting this virus. But I still feel bad for being at home when everyone else is at work, as we have zero cases of Covid19 in our town at present. I absolutely have to choose my health over work, I know this. This will be an ongoing internal rollercoaster for me, I expect.
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Useful resources:
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I downloaded this for my daughter but thought I’d share here in case it’s of use to any of you.
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Joke of the week:
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Book of the Week:
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What I’ve been watching:
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Sometimes this irritates me but for the most part it’s entertaining and doesn’t require too much of my attention to follow. I like it enough to proceed to series two, so that’s something.
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What I’m reading right now:
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Until next week… 
