Emma Power
Jul 27, 2017 · 4 min read

Surviving what felt like the plague

So this week my entire family got sick. I can’t even tell you exactly what it was but I’m going to call it the plague because I have never seen something wipe out so many human beings for so many days, including me. I think I jinxed it when I proudly bragged to a friend recently; “We never get sick. I can’t remember the last time I was sick. In eight years of parenting I’ve only had two sick days.”

Well jeez, am I regretting saying that now because the plague was listening and decided to punish me. The eight year-old was the first to be struck, he was shaking, then sweating, then coughing, then the stomach cramps kicked in, it was like a tsunami of symptoms. As I watched him deteriorate it was as if my eyeballs were soaking up the plague from him to me and by the time I put him to bed I was dizzy, cold to the very core of my being, had a pounding migraine that made me vomit and every bone in my body ached. It was like somebody had taken a baseball bat to me and everything was bruised.

The next day the pains were so bad I couldn’t move from my bed. As a mom the guilt of being sick is horrendous. All of the things you should be doing but can’t, run through your mind but I felt so sick I wondered if I could ever function as a normal human being again. My husband sorted the girls out for school and pre-school while me and the eldest child lapsed in and out of consciousness wondering if we would survive the day. As my husband disappeared out the door, a wave of panic washed over me; ‘oh my god what if Sam drops the girls to school and goes to work. There is no way I can look after Ryan,’ I thought to myself.

As I lay panicking, the same thought must have been running through Ryan’s mind, he dragged his frail body into my bedroom and with tears in his eyes he said; “Mom I don’t think dad is coming back, HE HAD HIS COMPUTER BAG WITH HIM WHEN HE LEFT. This is very disappointing!”

All I could do was groan, which didn’t do much to ease a worried 8-year-old but it was all I could manage at the time. Ryan is a lot more self-sufficient then he gave himself credit for, he was able to make himself toast, he even offered to make me some toast. He soon realized that having access to an ipad, the TV and the Xbox without any adults around was flipping fantastic. It was in fact every 8 year-olds dream scenario, he would have enjoyed it even more if he wasn’t feeling so crappy.

When you are a parent and you can’t carry out even the simplest of parenting duties it really makes you wonder how single moms cope, but not only that, what about all the single moms out there with a chronic illness, where they feel rubbish all the time and have no family support to help. How do they do it?

It’s like when you get a really bad hangover and it’s impossible to remember a time when you felt like a normal, healthy human being, even though it was probably the day before the hangover!

Our health really is our wealth. All those days we spend being a parent, on our feet pretty much most of the day pandering to small peoples needs, at least we can, at least we are able to get up and do it. When unloading a dishwasher seemed to sap as much energy as going for a run, its only then I thought of how much us moms do in a day. The jobs are never-ending, we bring life into the world and spend each day hoping we are doing a good job in creating decent human beings whilst trying to stay sane and healthy.

To all you single moms out there, some of whom don’t have the emotional support of extended family, I take my hat off to you. I said it before and I will say it again, being a mom is without a doubt the hardest job in the world, being a mom and feeling so unwell that you’re not sure how you will get through the day never mind looking after the needs of toddlers and babies, now that is super hero stuff. We do it because we have no choice. We do it because nobody else will and we do it in the hope that tomorrow will be a better day. Tomorrow we will feel better and back on track and when we do feel good again we will feel like super heroes because if you can survive being really sick whilst looking after a demanding two year-old, then you can survive anything!

Emma Power

Written by

Cork born writer, foodie and stressed out mom of three currently living in NZ, hoping to ease the pain of parenting for others one anecdote at a time.