There are no words for this...

So I found out today from the Health Link nurse that what I thought was just a recurring headache, courtesy of dehydration and not eating for almost a week, was actually symptomatic of a severe sinus infection. I woke up this morning with the most painful headache ever, so bad that even to touch my left temple or trying to open my jaw felt like searing pain stabbing into my head. If I bent down for any reason, my head felt like it was ripping off my neck. I remembered that my BFF's Kelly's mom had that same symptom one time and it had turned out she had meningitis! So that's when I frantically called up the Health Link line, thankfully my symptoms did not match meningitis (she said I wouldn't have been able to touch my chin to my chest, or turn my head to the side). Whew! But she said it was severe enough that I needed to see a doctor "immediately, or some time in the next 24 hours". Yikes!

Thank GOD Tyler had phoned that morning (during the worst of my headache) and had said he'd be coming home at lunchtime. So he came home and took me to the walk-in clinic. The doctor I had a was a total DICK. When I saw him I was like, "Oh no, not this jackass again!" One time about a year ago, Gunnar cut his hand, badly, on a piece of glass at the park and I had to rush him to the walk-in clinic to get it stitched up. That doctor is the one who handled Gunnar, and I remember at the time wanting to kick that doctor right in the nuts for his horrible "bedside" manner. There was Gunnar, in pain, shaking with reaction, and the doctor was roughly handling his hand, Does this hurt? How about this? Uh yes, you jackass, he has a inch-deep gash in his palm! The doctor shoved the needle in the skin, moving it around, Gunnar was white as a ghost and trying not to cry. The doc was just a total TOOL.

So anyway, the doctor was definitely still a major tool. "So why are you here today?" very abrupt. Uh, I've been sick for a week and I think its turned into a sinus infection. "And why do you think that?" Like I was a dick for self-diagnosing myself. Well, actually the Health Link nurse said that, based on my symptoms. He quickly looked in my ears, up my nose, at my throat, didn't take my blood pressure or listen to my chest, and said, "Seems like there's sinus congestion, I don't know about an infection though. Our policy is that you have to have symptoms for two weeks before we prescribe antibiotics. So just take tylenol for the pain, take a decongestant, and use some nasal drops or spray. Okay, goodbye." What a DICK! I should have just said, "Listen buddy I don't care about your policy, get me some antibiotics NOW. I have four kids to take care of!" Oh well.

The point of this post was not to bitch and complain about the doctor, or my prolonged sickness, or whatever. No, I want to use this post to SHOUT OUT TO THE WORLD what an AWESOME HUSBAND I HAVE!!!

You guys, these past three days, ever since he got back from Canmore with the boys and realized just how sick I was, he has been INCREDIBLE. I can honestly tell you that I have never seen that side of him. But these last few days, laying in bed (yes, the majority of my days were spent in bed, as I was literally unable to get my weak ass up), all I could do was listen to what was going on in my household. I had no control over anything, no input in any decision-making, no ability to do anything.

Gunnar mentioned how he had ZERO clean clothes for school; so then every hour on the hour I could hear Tyler going up and down the stairs, loading the washer and dryer, telling the boys to put away their own cleaned clothes, hauling hampers of clean FOLDED clothes upstairs to be put away. (I gotta say this, a man's version of folding is so.... cute! Inside out, hasty, not even organized into individual piles, just all folded together in the hamper, I guess to be sorted later? LOL) The man must have done like ten loads of laundry, no complaining. I'm still in shock that he actually folded.

He made meals and snacks for the kids. He reminded them to do their after-supper chores. He made sure to unload and re-load the dishwasher so there would be clean bottles for Ryder. Oh my god, and speaking of Ryder! I could hear how annoying and frustrating Ryder was being. Well, he was just being himself, doing the stuff he always does around here, like emptying cupboards, getting into the DVDs, making huge messes. You know, normal toddler stuff. And poor Tyler! He was having a helluva time keeping up to little Ryderman, trying not to yell at him (too often, haha). At one point, he was like, "That's it, you are going to your room!" I was trying not to laugh too loudly or hysterically, from my vantage point on the bed, because that's always been a huge fight-instigator between me and Hubs: the fact that I'll "lock" Ryder in his room when I need a break from him. Tyler has always maintained that its "mean" and "like torture" for "poor little Ryder", whereas I'm like, "Why else does he have two toy boxes and all those stuffed animals in his room if he's not meant to play with them, IN THERE?" So for Tyler to have to resort to that was priceless and awesome, and he knew that I knew he did it. Yet another "I get it" moment.

Tuesday morning, yesterday, Tyler stayed home to take care of the little ones. At 6:30am he woke up, got the boys going on their shower and bath, made their lunches as they ate breakfast, sent them out the door on time, got Lena and Ryder their breakfast, settled them in with a movie after that. I could hear him puttering in the kitchen, tidying up, then he did another load of laundry. When I woke up that morning, around 8:30, I was absolutely ravenous. All the day before, I'd had a really bad bout of nausea, puking up nothing but mucusy foam and bile. I wasn't able to keep anything down, even water (which was why he freaked out upon hearing that and said, "That's it, I'm taking tomorrow off and if you still haven't eaten anything, I'm taking you in to Emergency!"). I had dreams all night long of buffets, and easy-up eggs on toast, and pizza, and fresh strawberries. You name it, in my dream I ate it. Well, it had been five days since I'd last eaten! So when I woke up and said that my stomach was feeling up to food, what did that gorgeous man do? He made me easy-up eggs on toast with fried ham! And I ate three eggs and three pieces of buttered toast and two pieces of ham! And it stayed down! So all day long, he coaxed me to eat with all sorts of goodies. Around 1pm, after he'd fed the two little ones, he packed them up and went grocery shopping. That night, while the three older kids were at the movies with their gramma and uncle Levi, he made me a gourmet fruit plate with sliced peeled apples, bananas, fresh strawberries and even oranges all peeled and cut in little bite-sized pieces!

And not once, NOT ONCE, during these last few days has he made any sort of comment about the amount of time I've spent in bed. If that was me, if our positions were reversed, I know for a fact I would have already made some sort of snide comment about him maybe faking being sick in order to stay in bed all day, or whatever. But during this whole time of my horrible sickness, he's been nothing but understanding, and sweet, and totally on-the-ball when it comes to dealing with the kids and the house.

Today, when the boys got home from school, he had everyone's bikes out and ready for them all to go on a bike ride, taking advantage of the beautiful weather. Even Ryder got to ride along in his bike carrier behind his Daddy. Of course, we all know where Mom was, passed out snoring open-mouthed in bed (what? cut me some slack! I have a "severe sinus infection", I can't breathe through my snotty nose!).

For supper tonight, he cooked up some homemade deep-fried shrimp and calamari, with french fries. Before that, he got the kids to do some chores, like clean the front entry and the downstairs.

So to say I'm in complete awe of him right now is an understatement. Its like I'm seeing a whole new side of him, and I gotta say, Mama likes!!!