Back to Feeling OK

April 25, 2023

Summary: I really hate being sick.

My heart goes out to those with chronic illnesses who face days like I had yesterday (and Sunday) on the regular. It’s just SO HARD to do all of the maintenance life things while you are feeling fatigued and sick. I did work yesterday but it was a struggle, and was SO DONE with parenting by dinnertime that I texted Josh requesting that he come home (if feasible) to take over.

I was off the hook by 8 pm and spent a therapeutic 90 minutes watching more of Bad Sisters. Fascinating about the TV-related comments on yesterday’s post – like Kae, I find TV to be . . . fine. I don’t even necessarily elevate reading over a well-made TV show (especially since I don’t ALWAYS have the most highbrow book picks – which I don’t think there is anything wrong with, either!). I never get the ICK feeling after watching the way I do after scrolling. I wouldn’t even mind more TV in my life though it is a trade-off with reading in my case and I love to read (and finish books – somehow I feel I enjoy them more when I get through them in 10 days or so rather than stretched out over longer!?) so I probably won’t watch much more than I do now.

ANYWAY. I am back. My brain, my body, my resting heart rate. WHEW.

I owe you a D-I-T-L from yesterday and I’m afraid I started slacking with my time tracking a bit while I felt like death, but I think I can share broad sketches . . .

4:30 Alarm goes off. Decide I feel too sick to run, and go back to sleep.

6:30 Awake. (I needed those extra 2 hrs!). Shower, eat breakfast, give kids breakfast, take / give kid antibiotics etc. I don’t know the exact timeline was, but I was not moving terribly fast. Annabel made everyone’s lunch.

7:40 Drive / drop off kids / drive to work

8:30 Pts, with a lull in there where I wrote a blog post. Then everyone came late so I’m glad I took the down time.

12:10 10 minute lunch between patients. (This is NOT typical – usually I get close to an hour! But I did have a lull earlier as mentioned so it wasn’t that terrible)

12:20 Pts

4:00 Finished early somehow (also not normal) + went to pick up kids. Normally our nanny does this but she was away (normally she takes vacation when we are not working, but something came up, she asked + I granted it). Drive, collect kids (one of which had robotics at school anyway), drive home.

5:00 Arrive home. Feel crappy and still kind of sick. Decide that I am not up to making dinner. Order Chicken Kitchen at the kid’s begging request. At least it’s a relatively healthy option (kids had chicken/rice bowls + pieces of a quesadilla, I got a salad). Watch EC launch videos on YouTube (loved Amanda’s!) because um, I had to.

6:30 Dinner arrives; we eat + I clean up + direct baths. At this point I am fully out of energy and tired of parenting. Kids and kitchen somehow get clean and kids watch some Thundermans. I make a stress-induced EC launch order. FOR REVIEW PURPOSES OF COURSE . . .

new lifeplanners are out! If you’d like to use my link to shop, it is here

I don’t think anyone did any homework — A’s is due weekly and C doesn’t usually have any other than his reading journal.

7:45 Josh comes home and I inform him I am done with parenting for the day. (Parenting while feeling bad = the worst.)

8:00 Brush teeth etc and watch Bad Sisters

9:30 Sleep, both because I wanted a minimum of 7 hrs and because my laptop conveniently ran out of batteries.

yes, I am into this.

15 Comments

  • Reply Elisabeth April 25, 2023 at 11:41 am

    I’m still hung up on imagining my alarm going off at 4:30 AM – even at peak health. #BlowsMyMind and #NotAMorningPerson

    • Reply Sarah Hart-Unger April 25, 2023 at 11:54 am

      #NotANightPerson #ItsMyOnlyPeacefulTimeoftheDay hahaha. I get it! But I honestly do not struggle to get up. I love my mornings too much! Staying up until 10 pm (unless something INCREDIBLY fun and social and stimulating is going on) is MUCH harder for me than getting up early.

  • Reply Irene April 25, 2023 at 12:15 pm

    I got up at 6 today to exercise (no one in my family is a morning person at ALL) and even that was tough.

    Does Josh wake up with you at 4:30? My husband would really not like that!!

    • Reply Sarah Hart-Unger April 25, 2023 at 1:04 pm

      nope. i would say we wake each other up equally at crazy hours for various reasons. but i’m also pretty quiet and the second my phone goes off with a fairly quiet alarm i grab it and have already set out my workout stuff so if he’s in bed the disturbance is minimal. (I say if because . . .he may have a lifelong habit of falling asleep on various couches a significant percentage of the time, but I don’t think it has anything to do with my early wakeups.)

      • Reply Irene April 25, 2023 at 2:30 pm

        Interesting! My husband has also slept separately from time to time especially when kids were waking us up a lot but he goes back to sleep very well… me not so much!

        • Reply Jen April 26, 2023 at 5:12 am

          I am the same way! If I’m woken up within 2-3 hours of my wakeup time, I can’t go back to sleep. I made my husband get a wristwatch that has a vibrating alarm so it doesn’t wake me up (even the phone vibrating alarm woke me up…..but the wrist one seems to be ok.).

    • Reply ZM April 26, 2023 at 7:54 am

      I sleep with EarPods so I can listen to something as I fall asleep and get my alarm directly in the more. it’s silent everywhere else. It’s definitely a plus in that it does wake my husband or anyone else up.

  • Reply omdg April 25, 2023 at 1:14 pm

    Looking forward to hearing your take on Bad Sisters! I got up early to exercise last week a bunch of times, and it actually felt great. HOWEVER early for me is 6am, followed by a 30 min treadmill run at 7AM. I still cannot fathom the 4:30 wake up followed by exercise shortly thereafter.

    • Reply Sarah Hart-Unger April 25, 2023 at 2:05 pm

      I LOVE bad sisters so far but man . . . . makes me squirm sometimes! I almost want it to end so I can breathe out you know?
      it takes me like an hour to actually start running. so 4:30 means run is probably 5:30 start.

  • Reply KGC April 25, 2023 at 2:46 pm

    I used to regularly get up at 4:30 so that I could meet my running group at 5am – usually 2-3 x/week. While there were some downsides, the feeling of coming home by 6am and already being done working out for the day was magical…there is a certain badass feeling that comes from those early morning runs with friends, I found. Plus, it’s dark and quiet outside and it feels like the whole world is sleeping and we get to see really pretty sunrises. Like you, I don’t struggle with the early morning wakeups but staying up late is hard. Now I’m injured and not running at all and while I’m probably getting more sleep, I miss the camaraderie of that 5am group!

    I think a key to doing this regularly, though, is allowing yourself to sleep in when you need it – either from being sick or too many early wakeups or when you just need the recovery. Sounds like you’re being smart about it! Glad you’re feeling better.

  • Reply Jordan April 25, 2023 at 5:49 pm

    Glad you’re on the mend! Strep has been rampant – both my kids have gotten it several times this school year, including recently twice in three weeks for one kid. Ugh. I somehow avoided it the most recent time, but was really down for the count in the fall. It was rough! I also agree with you that parenting while sick is so tough.

  • Reply coco April 25, 2023 at 6:27 pm

    I feel TV the same way as way as you do, not as bad a scrolling instagram. I also want to watch more, good TVs or movies, but hard to get buy sometimes. What happened during my trip when I had no connection was that my mind was so much calmer looking at the nature instead of a screen that I realized the damage screen does to my mind. I hope to extend this experience even coming back by locking away the phone, minimal screen, and look more out to the nature if possible.

  • Reply Lydia April 25, 2023 at 8:53 pm

    I’m in the first trimester of pregnancy now (again… baby 4) and you would think by now I would learn not to conclude anything about myself as a human being based on my choices when feeling this terrible. And yet every single time, I start wondering if I’ve made allllll the wrong life decisions leading up to this point. Hearing other people talk about their sick-selves is a good reminder that how our bodies feel is a big deal!! And maybe I’m not neglectful and lazy for not having it all together at 9 weeks….

    • Reply Sarah Hart-Unger April 26, 2023 at 12:13 pm

      you get a free pass to make your primary to do item REST REST REST!!!!!!! 1st tri is absolutely no joke. I bet you will feel better soon!!!

  • Reply Jenny April 26, 2023 at 2:46 pm

    I’m glad you’re feeling better! Yes, parenting while sick is awful, and there are people who do it all the time- UGH.
    Getting up at 4:30 to run shows dedication. But it sounds like you’re an early bedtime/early riser person, so it works. I also run in the morning but my life is way easier now that I just have one kid at home, and she’s in middle school. Next year when she starts high school we’ll be getting up earlier!

  • Leave a Reply

    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.