One Sick Puppy

I've got a sick man in the house. We were suppose to go out on the bike when he got off work today. Shael went home with Mike's Mom after school and we were free to stay out on the bike as long as our frozen cheeks could handle it. But, instead, Mike came home sicker than a dog. He had a huge bag from Walgreen's full of stuff. NyQuil Cough and DayQuil, Sudafed, Halls, Zycam, Kleenex. I met him at his truck when he got home and when the door to his truck opened, it felt like a heat wave. You know the feeling you get of hot air blasting you in your face when you leave your windows rolled up during a triple digit day and you open your car door? That's what it felt like, only Mike was sitting in it. And not even breaking a sweat. He sweats in his sleep in the middle of winter when I'm freezing. I sent him to bed right away, after he changed into a pair of flannel p.j. pants. I gave him some Tylenol to break the fever and to help with the pain in his throat.

Since I hadn't eaten lunch, I was hungry and since I knew Mike wasn't going to be getting out of bed any time soon, I went ahead and cooked supper and ate it by 4:30. I ate my fill then put everything away. Around 6:30 Mike comes staggering into the living room, sweating and hungry. By then, I was eating a bowl of ice cream and watching TV in the living room. He decided to eat in the living room and watch a little TV with me. His eyes were bigger than his belly and when he got up to put his plate away, he started choking on the phlegm coming up from his lungs. He started making these horrible choking and gagging noises and I thought he was going to throw up on the living room floor. I'm so sympathetic, I said "If you're going to puke, at least make it to the trash can or something!" He just stood there gagging, face aimed at the carpet. He finally got it up and he spit it out in the trash can then took this huge breath. Then a couple more big breaths. I know the feeling of not being able to breath. I told him to use my inhaler but he only shook his head no. A few more scary moments like that where he can't breath for choking on his own phlegm filled lungs and he might change his mind about it. The shakes that the inhaler causes doesn't last forever, and it does help break that stuff up where you can cough it up easier and breath easier.

When he spit that out, it sounded like he was yaking into the trash can and I started gagging. I thought I was going to hurl into my own ice cream bowl. I jumped up to the kitchen and the feeling kind of went away. I dumped my uneaten ice cream into the sink. That was enough for me. Gross. He went back to bed and I heard him doing the same thing two more times a little later. Each time I turned the TV up louder in the living room so I wouldn't have to hear it and start gagging all over again. I have been going to the bedroom and checking on him every so often to make sure he's still breathing and he is.

Then I got engrossed in Little Women and heard him snoring. I thought he might be down for the night. I hope he is, anyway. As I sat on the love seat bawling my eyes out over Little Women, I would hear him snore every now and then, or blow his nose or make some kind of noise. But thank goodness, no more of that nasty hacking, gagging noises. Hopefully, he's not saving that for me when I go to bed. If Shael's bedroom wasn't so dirty, I'd sleep in her room tonight.

It's almost midnight, I'm getting tired. I should get to bed and face the other direction. Tomorrow I'm going to go buy some oranges and tank up on them myself while I'm forcing them down Mikey. I might try to find some coriander seed and make some tea to force down him, also. He hates it when I start brewing up some home remedy, but, most of the time, they work. I remind myself of my Grandma Stovall when he asks me what's in it. "Don't ask, you wouldn't drink it if you knew"