I don’t really understand the logic of this but my kids were home sick yesterday and while yesterday afternoon my son G- rallied and was feeling better, by last night he was descending into sickness again. He didn’t seem particularly sick at bed time and I was looking forward to a quiet evening with everyone else otherwise asleep.
And to his credit, he did sleep for many hours into the night and it was a quiet evening until I went to bed around 11.30, actually a bit early for me.
Then at 1am or so G- sneaks into my room and stands over me.
“Daddy?”
“Uhh, what?”
“I can’t sleep and my throat’s sore.”
“Uh, okay. Go lay down and rest then.”
And so the faint apparition wandered out of my room and vanished again.
Until a few hours later when he came in again and announced the same thing.
At that point, in the middle of the night, I couldn’t figure out, what exactly was I supposed to be doing?
I was exhausted and being interrupted every 90minutes or so is not a path to a restful sleep.
So this morning when we all got up at 7am for school I let him sleep in instead. And at 9.45am he texted me “where r u?”
He’s not 100% but he’s on his way. Tomorrow, gosh darn it, he’ll be in school.
But what’s the point of him waking me up to tell me he can’t sleep? I just don’t get it…
No matter how old I get, I feel fear every time I get seriously sick. The what-ifs start, my mind races, and I’m left stumbling through my own sickness-muddled brain. Often, the boredom, the thinking, and the unknown are far worse than the sickness itself. The fear abates when there’s someone else to tell me that it’ll be ok and there’s nothing more that can be done. Sometimes, simply knowing I’m going to the doctor tomorrow is enough to let me sleep once more.
That’s a good point, Ben. I guess it’s hard to be sympathetic when I’m exhausted and there’s nothing much I can do anyway. 🙂