Working Mom Wednesdays: Our Needs Met Last

If my kids get sick, my first thought is "take their temperature." Then, decide whether we should go see the doctor or not. Then, take them in and go through the whole process. It takes time and may mean that anything we had scheduled will be postponed or even canceled.

If I get sick, my first thought it "what do I have to do next?" In other words, keep the schedule running as normally as possible and don't let on that I am suffering.

Granted, this is not always possible. There have been cases when I was so extremely  and acutely ill that my whole world stopped spinning for a few hours while I tried to recuperate. Yes, you read that correctly - a few hours, not one whole day, not a few days, not one week, but a FEW PRECIOUS HOURS.

Yesterday, while getting ready for work, I was suddenly crippled with shooting pains in my back that escalated whenever I tried to pick anything up. The pain was on the left side of my upper back, just in the place I cannot reach. I was yelling out in pain which of course caught the attention of my husband.

Rather than rush to my side and help me, he was more concerned about the fact that HE might possibly be put out. The kids were not quite ready to go yet. Somehow, they would have to get to daycare. I had to make a decision of whether to call in sick or not.

I lay there, frozen in one position, thinking about the logistics of it all. I had a first period class, during which I would be evaluating 20 informative speeches that the kids had been working on for weeks, and my partner teacher and I were anxious to "get them over with!" Later in the day, I would have my Everyday English class, for which I had no specific lesson plan and didn't really want to bother other teachers with the task of having to teach it. The bone doctor, the same one I see once a month for an unrelated ailment, always has a full waiting room and there are certain strategies one must employ if he/she doesn't want to sit there waiting for the entire morning. It was already too late to employ Step One of that strategy.

Yosh! Decision made. I will go to work today. I'll roll off of the bed, put my shoes on, drag the kids' bags out the door and make my way out to the car. By this time though, Ailin was really upset because she could see something was wrong with her mama. Yusuke was still moaning and groaning about the possibility that he might be "put out" by all of this.

My back did eventually loosen up enough to drive the car and to carry Luka up to his classroom at daycare. I got through the workday without having to see the doctor. Yusuke came home with some special medicinal patches for my back and he stuck them on for me in the evening.