My kids gave me Strep... now the house is a mess.

Guess what my kids gave me...? Unfortunately NOT some fabulous popsicle stick art. They brought home strep throat. I hate to complain, its just when mom is sick everything else goes. The house is a mess, there are clothes everywhere, dirty dishes piling up and dog hairs on every surface. It's probably my own fault since I should give my kids more chores. I've been meaning to make a CHORE corkboard for years. My 3 yr old won’t go to bed unless I put him to bed. And why can’t my husband just order pizza for dinner? Lets face it, moms can never get sick!

Back on subject. I’m not sure which kid gave it to me. And the interesting thing is both my school-age girls do NOT have it. However both of them brought home one of those dreaded notes that say it’s going around their class. So it is possible to pass the streptococcal (strep) bacteria to someone else via your hands and body without actually contracting the illness. I had no idea! Did I mentioned my throat hurts? Man, this isn’t your garden variety sore throat. This is throbbing, great big globs of lovely white stuff back there… you can barely swallow type sore throat. Your glands are so swollen you can’t turn your neck.

So I went to the Doctor for a culture… and yep… it’s strep. Now I have to be careful not to give it to my kids or husband and start a vicious cycle. I am totally not a germa-phobe but when I was at CVS for my z-pac, I went on a germ killing shopping spree. Its unbelievable how many products are out there claiming to kill bad microbes. Funky hand sanitizer spray pens, anti-microbial wipes, sanitizer pumps in all shapes, sizes and smells. I bought them all! They know how to play on those mommy germ fears! Maybe I’m buying into the marketing hype – should I care? At least it makes me feel like I have some control. I gave a pen to my colleague at work. He has no kids… so it would be very clear if he got sick that it was from me. I brought some of the gel home, my 3-yr-old thinks it’s for his hair. I gave my husband some wipes for work. He looked at me in that kinda sad way… like I’m pathetic… but took them without commenting. And I put new yummy smelling hand soap pumps next to every sink. The shining moment was when my little boy brought me an “ice-pack” from the freezer. It’s what I give the kids for every little ache and pain. He told me to put it on my neck so I did. It actually made me feel better.