The weekend after TLM came down with a vomiting bug (thankfully very short-lived), I was struck by the very same bug.
I spent all of Monday dozing, shuffling (to the loo, to the back door to gaze at the sunny day outside), and drinking Powerade. And finding out that my mum had finally been discharged from hospital, and that my brother had taken her to his place until she was fit enough to go home.
By Tuesday I was feeling a hundred times better than I had the day before. I was still cautious about eating and was avoiding caffeine for the time being, but definitely well enough to go back to work.
The same day, the boy complained of a bad feeling in his gut. You can predict how that progressed.
Also on that day, I called my mum to ask how she was doing. All she wanted to do was to go home.
"There's laundry that needs doing, and my bed is still unmade from before I went to hospital". But we didn't believe she was ready to go home yet - it took her five minutes just to get from sitting down to standing up, and she couldn't walk for more than a few metres (with a walking frame) without needing a rest.
I applied for an emergency couple of days leave to give my brother some respite.
I went in this morning and mum was already up. "Alright" I said, "if you want to go home let's see if you can make your own breakfast."
Mum got as far as putting the jug on before complaining bitterly at my lack of customer service.
The rest of the day went a lot better, especially once she realised we weren't trying to force her into a rest home - because in NZ you can't get into a restroom even if you really want to, unless either you are willing to pay unlimited costs to get into one or the local health assessor thinks there's no other way for you to survive.
And that assessor is coming over on Friday, so we shall soon see...
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