Dodging the Bullets ...

There are some really icky bugs going around these here parts.

The night of the Ravens/Steelers game, after Mom and I had come back to The Pub, my father got hungry and ordered himself a cheesesteak sub from the carry-out place across the street. He offered me a bite, and I took it.

The next day, he was sick as a dog. He was pretty much housebound for two days, weak and queasy and throwing up. He was the first in our family to catch The Stomach Bug From Hell. He'd visited my grandmother the day before as well, and by the weekend she had come down with it too. Because she's already got health problems, it pretty much had her bedridden for two days. 

One evening while she was down and out, I took dinner over to Grandad and some gingerale over to her. Before I left, my Grandmom made me rummage through her kitchen cabinet and find the bottle of "Airborne" she had there. You know, those vitamin pills or whatever they are that a schoolteacher invented? They're supposed to keep people who are in germ-prone places like schools, gyms and airplanes from catching bugs. She made me take one in front of her before I left, and take a bottle home with a promise to keep taking them. She was afraid just walking into her house with Grandad's dinner would turn me into a barfing machine too.

I wasn't so sure. I figured if I'd escaped the bug after taking a big old bite of Dad's cheesesteak the night before HE started showing symptoms, maybe I was OK. But I took two more anyway, just to keep my promise.

A few days before Christmas, Grandad came down with the Barfing Bug From Hell. He had recovered enough by Christmas morning to at least enjoy breakfast with us, although he was still tired and achy. A few days after Christmas, The Niece got it. She recovered more quickly than anyone. She lay on the couch with her laptop and IPOD for a day, and was fine the next morning.

So with the exception of Mom, Sis, Lee and I, the whole family pretty much took a dose of the barfing bug. It seems to have run its course around here, finally. At least I hope so.

But we aren't quite out of the woods. I talked to Mom yesterday, and she told me she was sick as a dog. Not with the Barf Bug, but with stuffiness, achiness, fever and such. The Stomach Bug moved out, and a Bad Cold Or Flu Bug slid right on in.

Yesterday, Lee started feeling achy too. He's been stuffy, and last night he woke up with the chills. Today he feels a little better, but is still headachey and sniffly. He's man-sick. You know what I mean by that? In many ways, men ARE tougher than girls, at least tougher than me! They lift heavy things and fix roofs and kill icky bugs. But when they get sick ... WHAM! They're out like a light. I've always said that women have a higher threshold for that kind of pain because our bodies are made for having periods and giving birth. I've been making him tea and trying to keep him tucked under blankets. He's miserable.

Wonder if I'll dodge THIS bullet too? I hope so. The last thing I need is to get sick when I go back to work in two days.

Come to think of it, maybe I should dig out that bottle of Grandmom's "Airborne" again. It can't hurt ...