“I’ve just never been this exhausted before,” I said to my already sleeping wife as I finally got our daughter to doze off. This past week has most certainly been one of the hardest that I can recall. All three of us have been sick at some point, and it feels like we’ve been running on empty since the beginning of time. Though my memory may be skewed due to the cold medicine, I honestly can’t recall what life was like when we were all healthy and happy. Let me remind you, it’s only been a week.

Nobody tells you about being sick when you have a baby. They might warn you that your angelic little girl might bring home a cold from day care, but no one bothered to share the intensity of that horrible virus. It’s strong enough to make two adult parents slowly begin to lose their minds.

I think if we had contracted this bug before Gracelyn was born, we’d be down and out for about a day or two. That timeline is thrown out the window when adequate rest is unattainable. We normally can’t sleep because we’re taking care of a baby. Now we really can’t sleep because we’re taking care of a sick baby. I kid you not, this little girl was either scream-crying or sleeping for multiple days in a row. She’d only stop her tornado siren screams to check herself out in the mirror, and even then she’d lost patience with the way her father’s eyes drifted closed when he was suppose to be paying attention to her.

Our first doctor’s appointment for Gracelyn resulted in a frustrating just-wait-it-out diagnosis. The weekend arrived and our second attempt at health care was thwarted because our only option meant going to the emergency room. Finally the weekend ended, and she was diagnosed with a double ear infection and an eye infection. We were all officially sick and tired of being sick and tired.

Coasting through life is something for which I have great disdain. I never like doing something just for the sake of getting it done. Plus it’s important to follow the rules and do it right the first time. Those are all values I’ve strongly held for a long time, and promptly ignored after being so exhausted for so long. I shamefully admit to letting our daughter watch television, something which we actively try to prevent her from doing at her young age, in order to give myself a break from caring for her. Wheel of Fortune is good for her to learn how to spell anyways, right? She’ll be the smartest 3 month old at day care because of Pat Sajak and Vanna White. Hopefully Gracelyn will share her knowledge, unlike the other children who share their germs.

We’re still days away from being fully recovered, but Gracelyn’s medicine is working so effectively that we’re now able to get sleep in decent chunks of time. I recall the first night she was born, exhausted, wondering if this was what the rest of my life would feel like. Rest did come then and will come now, but I’m not sure Sera and I could make it through another week like we’ve just experienced.

If you’re still not comprehending our level of exhaustion, I’ll share that we hit rock bottom when we found the bottle of milk in the spice cupboard. There’s a lot that’s a blur from this last week, but that stands out as the moment in time where we knew something needed to change. Thankfully our health is slowly returning to us.

You, too, should be thankful for your health. Wash your hands, cough and sneeze into your elbow, and do whatever else it is you can do to keep healthy. There are people all over the place that can’t handle getting sick. We barely could. I can’t imagine what our week would have been like without insurance or being unable to pay a deductible. All three of us are otherwise very healthy, but if we had weakened immune systems, we’d surely be spending nights in the hospital from this bug. It’s important to remember to take care of yourself so others don’t need to be taken care of. The next time you think about skipping washing your hands, think of our baby’s bottle in the spice cabinet and consider if you really want to do that to someone by spreading your germs. I hope you don’t.

 

Rochester resident Matt Knutson is the communications and events director for United Way of Olmsted County.