Every December, I look for Christmas shows to record and then watch them after Faith has gone to bed. I love curling up with a fuzzy blanket and a cup of tea with the Christmas tree lights on, watching a holiday program. Usually, there is Christmas music involved!
This year, one of the shows I watched was Little Big Town's Christmas at the Opry. It was really good, and one of the most memorable performances was the country band's rendition of the Merle Haggard song, "If We Make It Through December."
When I heard them sing that song, I resonated with the title. Faith and I had both come down with COVID. Before that, I was just getting over a bout of the stomach flu. (Thank goodness Faith didn't catch that!) In between sicknesses, Faith and I managed to make it to The Nutcracker, but that's about the only thing we did in the days leading up to Christmas.
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| We made it to our 7th annual Nutcracker performance! |
One thing I missed that I was very disappointed about was the Lorie Line Christmas concert. I had attended last year with a friend of mine, and I absolutely loved it! This year, I decided to take my parents to it for their Christmas present. But on the day of the concert, Mom was instead taking me to the walk-in clinic, due to the fact I could barely breathe when I coughed.
The doctor recommended a breathing treatment and prescribed an inhaler. I've never had to use an inhaler before, and I did not like the side effects like tachycardia, shakiness, and insomnia, but it did help with my cough.
About an hour later my test results came back, and sure enough I had COVID. I figured Faith had it too, since we had come down with similar symptoms the same day. I'm very thankful she didn't get my cough, but she did get stuffed up to the point that it was hard for her to sleep. Needless to say, that was an exhausting week!
Another stressor was that all of the goodies from the Nutcracker-themed fundraiser that Faith had participated in (due to being a part of their adaptive ballet program) were in and needed to be picked up. Since I wasn't well enough, Mom and Dad went and picked up the goodies. They were not prepared for it being such a big, heavy box. Faith was one of the top sellers! Mom and Dad brought the box home and sorted all the goodies for me. I was so appreciative of their help!
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| We missed a Sunday of church but were able to watch online! |
On Christmas Eve we did a video chat with Faith's grandparents in Canada, and they happily watched us open our gifts. That evening, we felt well enough to go to the Christmas Eve service at church. What a blessing it was to be with our church family celebrating the birth of our Savior!
The next day, we made it to my sister Dawn's house, where we had a small family gathering with a lot of food, that included ham, roast beef, veggies, mashed potatoes, gravy and homemade buns. There were also a lot of cookies and a few homemade pies. It was the most food I had eaten all month. Even though I couldn't smell it (due to losing my sense of smell) I could still taste it!
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| Faith opening gifts on Christmas Eve |
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Faith was excited to wear her new Walnut Grove t-shirt from
Auntie Dawn to the Christmas Eve service. |
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Hanging out with family on Christmas Day
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| Mom and Dad with two of their great grandsons |
It seemed we were both on the upswing, but then I noticed one evening when changing Faith's slippers that she had a little cut and a bruise on her big toe. I thought she must have hit it on her footrest or something. I put some antibiotic ointment on it and didn't think too much about it. The day after Christmas Faith could finally go back to her day program. She was so excited!
However, after getting home, she flinched when I took her shoe off and when I looked at her foot, it looked swollen. The next day instead of going straight to her day program, I took her to the walk-in clinic. The waiting room was packed. Faith didn't mind and struck up conversations with other patients sitting nearby. After over an hour, she finally got called back and many people called out, "Bye Faith!"
Turns out she got cellulitis (bacterial infection) from the tiny cut in her foot. Because we had waited so long and then had to get her antibiotics afterward, she didn't make it to her day program. She was sad but handled it well.
After we got home, I gave her the first dose of antibiotics and then her feeding. Two hours later, she threw up. After a couple hours, her tummy settled down and she slept for a bit. She ended up waking up feeling thirsty, so I gave her some apple juice. Thankfully she kept things down over the weekend and her foot doesn't seem as tender.
It's been a tough month, but we've nearly made it through December!
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| We hope you all had a Merry Christmas and have a blessed New Year! |
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