The Walking Virus

My sophomore year in high school my older brother, Erik, dubbed me with the nickname "Walking Virus". There were soon small caricatures of a cartoon virus walking around the house. Oh how I loved the support of my older brother and his artistic skills! I guess his joke did have some merit considering I had tonsillitis, strep throat, and mono all at the same time and missed an entire month of school.

Well the years have gone by since high school and not much has improved with my immune system. It didn't help that I chose to go into public education; specifically elementary age levels. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE the excitement and love of learning that a child possesses, but the massive cesspool of germ infested fingers is not the ideal everyday situation for my sickness prone body.

Last year alone, while teaching third grade here in Pleasant Hill, I had a sinus infection every six weeks, strep throat 3 times, and walking pneumonia all by the time March rolled around. You'd think that I was the only one being effected by these sicknesses, but sadly Dallas, sleeping in the same bed, was put in the death zone. Several nights he ended up sleeping on our blow up mattress to hopefully evade the circling germs in our bedroom. Sometimes this worked; others it did not.

This year has been extremely refreshing! Although I do miss having my own classroom and interacting with my students; I have NOT missed the never ending trips to the doctor. I am proud to report that I have not had any infection (sinus or throat) since I stopped teaching in June!

So you can see why I was shocked when Dallas came home totally sick with no voice on Thursday. My first thought was "How did you get sick without me giving it to you!?" My second thought... "Oh no does this mean I'm going to get sick!?"

A couple days later...TWO sad people on the couch watching movies.