The Best Day, and the Best Way, to be Sick as a Dog, When Moving to Alaska

View out my hotel window. Snow has been falling off and on in Anchorage all day on 12/12/2013. 
I have watched it fall, in mostly small flakes, in between bouts of nausea, vomiting, *fast poop,*
running/dashing to the bathroom, taking showers, and soaking sore parts of my body in the tub.
I kept thinking that I should take a picture,  but it wasn't until waking up a little after 1:00 am, that I followed though.

Warning: If talking about being sick makes you uncomfortable, skip this post all together. Enjoy the picture of the snow out my motel room window, and come back tomorrow. Seriously, its all about being sick. You have been warned.

If you are from Oregon City, (of almost anywhere in Oregon from some of the news articles i found when I googled this morning, then you probably already know that there is a very nasty flu bug going around. To quote one of my daughters, "It makes you throw up your guts, and then have so much *fast poop* that you can't get to the bathroom fast enough, unless you are already sitting on the toilet."  I have only heard two variations in the timeline of this, (one was *fast poop* first, and the other was completing the process once, seeming okay, and then getting it again 2 days later.)

My daughter's description is accurate to my experience; the symptoms, timeline has been the same in everyone we talked to, and over and over, we heard people say, "surviving the first 12 hours, when you aren't sure you want to, is the hardest part." At 12 hours, 16 minutes, I suddenly could contemplate toothpaste. At 11 hours and 57 minutes, the thought sent me in to dry heaves.

I am not particularly grateful that I spent the day miserable, where the pain and lethargy were only broken by mad dashes to the bathroom. I am grateful for the timing though. I know that I was exposed last weekend, although we didn't know it until the last hour of our visit with Josh, Sarah and Kat. We saw, face-to-face just how much that 12 hour clock starts, out of the blue. We got clothing changed, a quick shower to clean body and hair. Knowing the exposure had happened all weekend, we honored the request to stay, long enough to hear all the siblings receive their Christmas Blessing. The desire to hear the blessings, outweighed the greenish tint of skin, and with all the concentration of belief, it wasn't until all the blessings were given, that the bug regained control, and the need for another complete change of clothing, before going back to their dad's. by morning all the kids had it, and Tuesday night their father had his first brush with the fast moving virus.

By Tuesday night, the kids were mostly better, although exhausted. I had seen my primary care doctor, for a transfer of care appointment, and asked for advice if I did come down with the flu. Consensus was exposure had been long enough ago, that I should already have it, if it was coming. I am grateful it waited until after our flights yesterday, and struck around noon today. It has been just as bad as my daughter described, and the advice that once you survive the first 12 hours, things start getting better, was born about half an hour ago. My husband checked his email, shared some exciting news, and 13 hours after the start, the smell of toothpaste doesn't make me dry heave. My legs are shaky, but they are stable. I am really sad we didn't get to meet two friends we had hoped to have dinner with tonight, but we would have felt terrible if we had exposed their baby to this, and started throwing up tomorrow morning.

We won't get as much done, as we had hoped to, while in Anchorage, but we have a hotel room with ADA amenities, so I could take showers and baths when I needed, something that would have been hard without all the extra railings and features of this particular room. We did not both get it at the same time, in a city both of us are new to, so Scott got supplies for me, and if he wakes up throwing up, we already have everything we need. (Although Scott very rarely gets sick, so I won't be surprised if he never is sick.)

I believe in a God who loves us, and blesses us, even when it isn't the way we would "choose." I am so grateful that all I have missed is a day of shopping and dinner with friends, who I am sure we will meet in-person, at some point in the next year. We didn't expose more people than we had to. Since we were in the 6th row, with the partition between us and the 5th row of first class travelers, I had many fewer people to possibly breathe on, and potentially infect. There were no children in first class or the first 15 rows, so I am not worrying about whose baby or child I might have infected.

For me, this whole post, is filled with blessings. If I had to get sick, God chose the best way and time, in an incredibly complicated time in our lives. I hope that you also are able to look for, and see, the beauty that God's love brings into your life, even if it is only in the timing of when you and/or your children become ill. There are so many things that could have gone so badly, and they didn't. I am so grateful, even if I know that I have only gotten through the worst, not all of the physical challenges of the rest of this week.

So, what are you grateful for, that might sound strange, without putting it into the context of your life?