Influenza A

I noticed it creeping up on Thursday afternoon.  That heavy chest feeling I tried really hard to ignore.  While I ignored it, I ripped the wall down between the "middle room" and the livingroom.  Friday was worse, but I managed to finish tearing down my wall and I even got some of that wall paper down in the diningroom.  My mom stopped by for lunch and decided she should teach me how to use the wall paper steamer.  It is probably a good thing she did...  I may never have started that very intimidating process without her.  And we discovered that there were actually 4 layers of wall paper to peel off.  The steamer really did make it a lot easier though. 
Friday night I broke down and took some nighttime cold medicine.  I slept for about 15 hours and then convinced myself that the way I felt Saturday morning was simply a "cold medicine hangover".  Saturday afternoon our work crew came over and helped us install the rough-cut pine beams where the wall had been.  It looked beautiful!  But it was about all I could do to make it until the work was finished up.  I picked up the kids, went home and put us all to bed. 
Sunday morning I had to face the music...  I was sick.  I knew church was out of the question, so I drove my sorry self down to Prompt Care instead.  The verdict wasn't pretty.  I managed to get Influenza A...The real flu.  And that had apparently turned into a sinus infection and bronchitis and I was working toward pneumonia.  Yuck.  Armed with a prescription for a Z-pack and the doctor's order to go find somewhere to hide for a few days, I came to the realization that I would be enduring a very real type of torture, possibly worse than how I currently felt... I wasn't going to be able to go work on the house to finish up the beams with our work crew today.  The only thing worse than feeling this miserable, is feeling this miserable and missing out on fun while attempting to get better.
When I got home Matt headed off to the farmhouse with a reminder that I needed to get better, "this is a marathon, not a sprint" and I tried really hard not to hate him for feeling well enough to work when I couldn't. 
It sounds like they got a ton of work done today.  The beams are up, the cabinets where we will be moving the refrigerator are gone, the carpet in the kitchen is pulled up and it sounds like they have plans for more beams on the kitchen side of the livingroom.  I can't wait to see all the work.  I will take pictures to share as soon as I am allowed back out there.  I am hoping to drive over tomorrow, but since I can't even climb the stairs at our house without having to stop for air, I won't be holding my breath...