In Sickness and In Health
My oldest daughter is a nurse. When she graduated from nursing school, she went to work in the neonatal intensive care unit at her hospital as a fresh-faced 22-year-old, faced with drawing blood and running IVs in tiny bodies weighing only a few pounds. She referred to infants with no difficulties as "fat babies" to distinguish them from her charges, some of whom stayed in the NICU for such long periods that she got to know them well, along with their entire families. She came close to adopting one child in her care. She's got a big heart. Eventually, she went to grad school and became a nurse anesthetist, a role that suits her. She also started one of the first ketamine infusion clinics in her region to help people with long-lasting drug-resistant depression. She's a natural caretaker.
At a family gathering a few months ago, her son took a spill out on the driveway and got shaken up a bit. He's only five and not really a crier, but there were a few tears shed in this instance. My daughter gathered him up, soothed him, and got him calmed down. My grandson sat there and explained to his grandmother and me that "Mom takes care of us when we're sick. We get to stay home for one day." We laughed. She is a caretaker, but she's no pushover.
My mother is also a nurse, although I was in high school when she went to nursing school. When my brother, sister, and I were sick as children, Mom had a strict regimen. First thing, you had to stay in bed, not on the couch in front of the TV, in bed. Second, you got to drink flat Sprite. I'm not sure what medicinal qualities are in Sprite, but I recovered from every childhood illness, so there must be something to it. You got to eat, as long as what you ate was saltines, dry. With her Spartan regimen, none of us was interested in staying home any longer than necessary to recover.
As an adult, I have been pretty healthy. I get the flu about once a decade and am currently dealing with my second bout of COVID since the pandemic started. I don't require much care. Just let me sleep wherever and whenever I need to. Don't make me do any work, and otherwise feel free to ignore me. Wonder Woman did me the favor of making a grocery store run and stocked up on some of my favorite fresh fruits and lots of drinks to keep me hydrated. We even watched our daily hour of TV together, but I pointedly did not get any snuggling because she is trying to stay healthy. I don't blame her.
When I made the obligatory announcement of my positive COVID test on social media this afternoon, I received plenty of well wishes and get-well-soons, all of which were appreciated. In my waking moments, I'm sure I'll be bored stiff and wanting to go to the office as I sit here with my hard-earned PTO days wasted on not feeling well. At least I don't have to drink flat Sprite and eat saltines.
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