My Phobia

Happy Thursday!  We’re almost to the long, holiday weekend and I can’t wait!  Except now I have to worry about one of my biggest phobias – getting the stomach flu!!!  Yesterday on the way home from school Aiden tells me his stomach is hurting.  After that he never says another word about it and he ate supper last night.  Then at bedtime he says his stomach is hurting again.  To bed he goes, falls asleep and I start to panic that it’s going to be a long night.

An hour and a half later we hear a thump.  Andy goes to Aiden’s bedroom to check things out and doesn’t come back for about 10 minutes.  When he does come back he says “Aiden’s sick.”  No, he didn’t throw up but he did have diarrhea and was complaining that his lower abdomen hurt really bad.  Andy put him on the floor of our bedroom to sleep.  Aiden laid there writhing around in pain, he just couldn’t get comfortable.  We went to bed about that time and listened to Aiden squirming around on the floor next to our bed.  I finally fell asleep but was woken up a number of times through the night by Aiden’s moving around and going to the bathroom. 

This morning he got up, put on some clothes and ate breakfast like nothing ever happened.  He says his lower abdomen still hurts a little, but is feeling much better.  Throughout this whole thing he has never had a fever, never thrown up.  I’m at a loss and of course I start to panic and go through all the awful things it could be – Appendicitis anyone?  Scary! 

Because Aiden says it doesn’t hurt nearly as bad and he’s not writhing around in pain anymore I called the nurse at the local clinic to get her advice.  She said there are a lot of viruses going around again/still and to just keep him hydrated, give him small, bland meals and to keep an eye on him.  We scheduled an appointment for late in the day but if he continues to get better to call and cancel it.  So basically it’s a wait and see kind of game.  Boo.

Now, on to the phobia part of this.  I have a crazy, intense phobia of getting the stomach flu.

I panic more about getting the flu than I do about bad weather.  When I hear that someone else has the flu I go into freak out mode.  And if someone I’ve been around gets the flu I immediately have flu-like symptoms – my stomach aches, I have diarrhea, I feel faint and icky all over.  I panic myself into having the stomach flu!  It’s so bizarre and totally stinks!  I boycott  Facebook in the winter time because I’m worried I’ll read that one of Aiden’s classmates has the flu and then I’ll be worried sick until he comes down with it himself.  I have no idea why the flu freaks me out so bad.  No one likes to throw up, obviously, but most do not have the same freak out fear as I do.  Maybe I need psychological help, ha ha!

This weekend we have a family wedding that is an hour away so I will panic the entire time and worry that one of us will start throwing up (even though that doesn’t appear to be one of the symptoms of this particular virus, if that’s what it is).  I have panicked myself into not going to events before because I’ve been so worked up that we would get the flu.  This is obviously a big problem for me. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, today I have both boys, both who feel relatively normal, and they are driving me NUTS already!!!  And it’s not even 9:00 yet!  Tuesday is Aiden’s last day of school (they are out at 11:00, why are they even going?!?), so today is giving me a taste of what is to come.  I’ll be kicking them outside quite a bit to burn off energy I think! I need to get my summer plan together so we aren’t bored.

Send me good, healthy thoughts today so hopefully I don’t get whatever it is/was that ailed Aiden! 

Erin