Shut in

You know what isn't really fair?

Getting the flu TWICE in one season.


I blame my little sister. She's the one who brought her sick kids to my house, the result of which was my for 2 weeks on the couch.

And because I know how horrible it is to get sick I didn't want to risk passing it on to anyone else. I stayed cloistered up in my house, buried by quilts and didn't even look in the ear doctor's direction for fear of infecting him.

By Friday I was about 98% over it.

Sunday I still had a cough, but figured it would be alright to go out in the world and attend a friend's superbowl party. Especially since this friend just had high risk baby a month ago and I was dying to check in and and see how she was doing.

BELIEVE ME WHEN I TELL YOU I HAD TO GET OUT. My weak grasp on sanity was beginning to falter.

Her baby was born with CDH which means that there was a little hole in her diaphragm. Intestines flowed up and prevented her little left lung from developing. Scary, scary stuff, but since the baby's been born things have gone as well as possible. Really, it's been miraculous. But she'll probably always have respiratory problems, and still isn't home from the hospital.

Which is why I only felt a twinge of guilt when I coughed a few times during the party.


My friend, the mother, told me that for the next year their life will revolve around hand sanitiser and isolation. Visitors will be asked to shower and change clothes before even seeing the little one. Casual trips to the grocery store will soon be highly orchestrated ordeals.


And suddenly the past two weeks of being quarantined in my house didn't seem like that big of a deal. The "ordeal" I'd just been through was really nothing compared to the year this dear friend has ahead of her.