Coming Back to Life...Slowly

The last few days have passed in a blur of pain and exhaustion. This weekend was Craig's 9th birthday. My family drove down to stay with us, and we had a big party planned for Craig's friends on Saturday. Ten people living in our house for three days, and twelve boys ages 8- 12 running around Saturday afternoon. It's not too hard to predict what would happen to me, is it?

I expected to crash a bit after the party, but the reality was so much worse. I've been severely crashed more than half the time since New Year's Day (no idea why). I felt good briefly on Friday morning, ran around to do the errands I'd had to put off all week, and quickly crashed again. I woke up Saturday morning with my throat burning and my legs aching. I don't know how I made it through the party, but afterwards, I crawled into bed and stayed there the rest of the weekend, despite our house full of guests.

It wasn't all bad, though. While lying on my back all last week, I planned a rather elaborate Amazing Race party for Craig and his friends. With the help of my family and my wonderful friend Amy, the party was a huge success. Craig and his friends raced all over our house for two hours, making forts, hunting items in a scavenger hunt, solving secret codes, and taking on all sorts of challenges. The kids had a blast. Most importantly, Craig loved it and had a great time with his friends.

Even better, our birthday surprise for Craig was a huge hit. We got him a pet hamster, and he is beyond thrilled. He's a very loving, affectionate kid, and he's wanted a furry pet for a long time. He must have thanked us (for the hamster and the party) hundreds of times this weekend. Both of our boys seem to be in good shape this morning, so that's more good news - no crashes for them after the wild weekend.

As for me, I don't know what's going on. I've spent eight of the last fourteen days in bed. My boys would say I jinxed myself last month when I said I was feeling better than I had in four years (I was!). There's no doubt in my mind that there's some sort of virus behind this, whether as a trigger for a bizarre immune system response or directly affecting me. I feel a great deal of empathy for those with CFIDS who feel this bad all the time. I know I'm fortunate to be able to function as well as I do most of the time, even though it's about 40 - 50% of what I could do before I got sick.

I'm trying to break this cycle by taking things real slow now that I'm feeling decent again today. Maybe a few days of continued rest will finally allow my body to get back to where I was before.