MEDICINE HOUSE

As I grabbed hold of Sage's hand tonight, I noticed it was cooler than mine. He did too. I put his hand on my forehead and he exclaimed, "Mama! You're hot!" The fever started earlier this morning and has not yet subsided. From the time I dropped off the children at the bus stop until it was time to pick them up at noon, due to it being a half-day today, I stayed in bed and slept as much as the illness allowed me to sleep. Chills accompanied me throughout the day despite my having been curled up under the down comforter. Nausea and abdominal pain followed shortly thereafter.

Upon our return home, I told the children I needed to lie down some more. "I love taking care of tebe", voiced Sage ("tebe" is "you" in Croatian). "It's nice", he continued. So, both of the children pretended to be nurses, taking care of me in between their building a "medicine house", as Sage explained. Every 10 to 15 minutes, nurse Sage would walk over to me and give me medicine in the form of water. A few minutes later, nurse Cinnamon would rush over to take the bottle of water away and return it to its place on the floor. At times they argued over who got to administer the medicine, but the system in place seemed to work well. They proved they could play nice together.

This stomach flu, if that's what this is, could not have come at a more inconvenient time as I will be departing for Berlin early Sunday morning. Saffron called on Skype this afternoon and was able to see her siblings due to their early release day. She let me know she's packed her bag and is anxiously awaiting my arrival. I wish I could say I was ready but two illnesses this week served as hindrances to my plans.

Albeit today was another setback, I have confidence tomorrow will be a better day.