Do Mom's Get Sick Days?

I am sick. I am sick with body aches. Chills. Nausea. Fatigue. Migraine. I would love for nothing more than a full 12 hour sleep at night. I would like this sleep to be uninterrupted and I would like to sleep alone. I want to have a glass of ginger ale on my night stand for my own personal consumption. I want to be able to look at trashy celebrity gossip websites in bed in between watching Season 2 of Dexter and doing the People magazine crossword puzzle. In a perfect Person world this would happen. But I do not live in Person world. I live in Mom world. Just because I am sick doesn't mean I get the rest I need to get better. Don't I get a sick day?

It started on a beautiful sunny Wednesday afternoon. I was lounging at the beach with good friends and good magazines. The kids were playing well together and wanted nothing to do with the grownups. I am not a beach person per se. I don't like sand in crevices sand does not belong in but ultimately creeps into it. I don't like sand in my food or salty wet children tracking sand clumps all over everything. I do enjoy the ocean breeze and the sun shining. I was actually having a good beach day. When we left the beach and headed to a friends house for dinner the back pain started. I contributed it to my lack of working out and my gaining of five additional pounds. I was picking up kids and moving beach stuff and other physically strenuous activities. I never thought it would be the onset of the flu. I mean, seriously, who gets sick in the summer?

Being woken up by the gagging noise of your 5 year old puking on your bedroom floor at 5:50 am is really not my preferred method. However, this was my Thursday morning wake up call. It all went quickly downhill from there. I'll spare you the details as I am a compassionate person. But I have been, for the last 24+ hours, been dealing with fevers and diarrhea and pukie bowls. One kid sick, the other not. One kid who needs cuddles and Tylenol and back rubbies, one kid who has boundless amounts of energy and a short fuse. I am really stuck between a rock and a hard place. I can't take care of one sick kid while entertaining the other. Did I mention that by now I want to curl up in the fetal position with my own pukie bowl and have someone feed me ibuprofen and rub my back?

I called out sick to work yesterday and for today. I was, foolishly, hoping that I would make it to work on Saturday. (When you work on commission and don't get paid sick days and have a camp payment due work is imperative.) I didn't sleep at all last night but my amazing husband worked from home today and after ingesting some meds at 4:30 this morning I slept relatively well until noon. I woke up, showered (but I haven't brushed my teeth since Wednesday...), ate some toast and nursed a cup of coffee, dressed the sick kid, cuddled with the healthier one, and texted my friends.

Now I am sitting in the living room alone watching Johnny Test. Sick kid is upstairs on her computer. Husband took my son out to my friends town beach. I just washed down some more ibuprofin with some Diet Coke. I am caught in a battle between chills and heat stroke, with chills currently taking the lead. Throwing up would be great right now because I can't stand the nausea. But I am alone on a comfy couch. I have read most of my magazines and am up to date with celebrity shennanigans. So maybe I do get a sick day, at least for a few hours.