Mom and the Flu

My mom's been sick. Not the "going to die from some disease" kind of sick, but still, pretty sick. I'm pretty sure she's had the flu. Now I don't know how she got the flu. She had both the regular flu shot and the H1N1 flu shot. And that was way back in December before Christmas.

It started, strangely enough, with her teeth. She went to the movies and had some popcorn. Then her mouth started to hurt, so she brushed and brushed and flossed and flossed but there was no popcorn in there. Still, it got all inflamed and hurt.

Then she had about a week where we were all about to get in trouble. Every day she got up and said she felt like someone had beaten the crap out of her while she was asleep. Of course since we cats slept on the bed, we were the prime suspects. But the damage was much too painful for it to have been us, even if all three of us had been beating her. Even with sticks! So mom decided that her recent work carrying stuff into her classroom might be the problem.

But then she started getting headaches and a sinus infection. Then a sore throat and a cough. And a fever. Now that was fine with Smokey. She only weighs two feathers and is always cold. Snuggling up around mom with a 102 temperature was fine with her. Of course it was a little inconvenient for her as mom was always talking in her sleep, rolling around, flipping the covers off and on. And always with that cough that sounded like her lungs were going to come flying out.

And she had major hair issues. Sometimes she took a shower then fell asleep before her hair was all dry. One day we dubbed her Hammer Head because of her hair issues. Smokey and I snickered behind our paws all that day. I'll include a picture.

Of course all of this all this happened during the worst blizzard we've had in a decade. Thursday the entire town of Mouskin was snowbound and Friday most everything was closed. By Sunday, mom was sick enough to think about going to the ER.

When she got there, there were so many people waiting in the "flu section" that she turned around and walked right back out again. Mom wasn't about to take a chance on bringing home the latest version of whatever was new at the local hospital. Hospitals are the best place to go if you want to get sick.

Monday mom was too sick to remember to call her doctor, but on Tuesday she finally got in there. The doctor decided she had the flu, (sur-PRISE!) and gave her some cough medicine and antibiotics. The cough medicine makes her really sleepy, so Smokey and I have been having a lot of fun dragging up little pieces of paper and little toys and cat food and other stuff and piling it on her face. Did you know she twitches?

So mom's feeling much better now and we're all happy about that. She hardly ever uses her cough medicine now, so I think she'll be doing ok by the time her whatever-cillin runs out. In the meantime, we're all taking good care of her, snuggling up and making sure she doesn't die in her sleep and stuff. (She doesn't like that part, but oh, well! Her health is more important to us than worrying about her getting mad about me sharpening my claws on her head at 4:00 in the morning, right?)