De flu! De flu!

Am I the only one around here old enough to remember watching Fantasy Island on Saturday nights as a kid? And getting scared half-to-death?

No? Good.

Sigh. I'm typing this on the desktop, because it appears that Jason didn't bring the laptop in when he came home from work. And now he's gone, and I'm here at home, and I've just realized what he's getting for Father's Day this year - a more comfortable office chair.

If you follow me on Facebook - and really, that's probably the worst thing to happen to my actual blog in a very, very long time - you know that I'm mother to a sick little girl.

Except - she isn't acting sick! Well, she did on Monday. She came home from school and took a nap! And then I came home to find her all lethargic, lying in her "Hippo Chair" watching television. Complaining that her legs were achy. And I took her temperature, because only a fever could make her act that way.

Yup. Bring on the Advil.

Monday night before bed, she's fine. Tuesday morning, more fever.

(And then tears, when she hears that she had to miss school.)

I felt worse than she did yesterday, so much so that I fell asleep watching TV. I never do that. Never.

After a couple more rounds of fever-fighting Advil yesterday, she woke up this morning ready to go.

(And truthfully, so was I, because I had a special section to get done and it had to be done TODAY. And I hadn't started on it at all on Tuesday! Don't blame me - the run sheet, which tells me what ads are running, probably wasn't finished until yesterday anyway. But I digress.)

I took my fever-free daughter to school and hightailed it to work to get started, only to get a call from the assistant teacher about 9 a.m.

She's running a fever.

I went to pick her up, and I could tell she just wasn't feeling well. She had what my mother calls "weak eyes."

I took her to work with me, and then Jason let Amanda leave the auction and come back down to get her. By the time she arrived, we'd made the decision to take her to the doctor.

Amanda took her in, and miraculously, they were seen within a few minutes.

A flu test was administered. Did you know they can do that now - stick a Q-Tip in your nose and tell you if you've got the flu? Guess when you don't have health insurance, you're sort of out of the loop on these things. It came back positive, and the doctor (oddly enough, named Anna Mary) said that she must have a very strong immune system, because she looked pretty good for someone with the flu.

We're strong stock.

They were finished about lunch time, so I took the two AM's out to Subway for lunch. Amanda brought the little one back to my house, and I braved the wilds of Walmart for the Tamiflu that was prescribed.

(Did you know there's a run on the stuff right now? Isn't flu season supposed to be over? Walgreens was out, and Walmart only had enough to fill half the prescription!)

She has to miss the rest of the week of school. But she's acting like she isn't sick at all! She's eating fine, she's playing - the only way you'd know she was ill was to look at her eyes, or maybe at her flushed cheeks if she's running a fever.

So now, Jason went to choir practice, and I'm here with Anna Marie. Several miracles happened today - Amanda was able to watch Anna Marie; we caught the flu in the early stages, so we might not need antibiotics; I finished my special section; and Jason brought home dinner, so I didn't have to cook!

As sad as she is to be out of school, she did learn the magic that is getting your mom to check you out. She told Amanda while they were waiting at the doctor that she wished she had a phone, so she could call me every day to come get her.

She's gone from a H.A.T. (Here All the Time) kid to a truant, in one easy step.

I did at least call the school for today's work so she won't be swamped when she goes back. And she was thrilled. Thrilled! I have one funny kid.

I'm just praying that Jason's strong immune system, and my flu shot, hold up through this ordeal.