Mimi and Florence.

Two and a half weeks ago I felt as if I were on my death bed, (as you will recall) and Didier was there, nursing me along the way.

Well, now it's my turn. :-) and I go there willingly.

Didier has been under the weather for over 2 weeks now. It started back on Friday April 18th. He'd been coughing, congested and fevered for a couple days and by that Friday, he was down for the count. He called in sick to work, made a Dr's appointment for Saturday and went back to bed. On Saturday the Dr said "Flu"... and so he took it easy, bed rest, Tylenol and lots of cough syrup and juice... He stayed home on the following Monday and grudgingly went back on Tuesday, based on deadlines and workloads he felt compelled to complete.

Slowly but surely he was improving during the week, but no great leaps made. By the weekend of the 26th/27th we were now both sick, coughing constantly, in tandem so it seemed so that sleep had become a thing of the past.

By Wed the 30th we actually both seemed to be noticeably improving. That was short lived however...

We went over to our friends Jason and Franco's place for "Ugly Betty Night" a double feature this week of not only U-B but also LOST, as neither Didier or I saw last weeks episodes and our friends kindly PVR'ed em. Along with five other friends, (we were nine in total, and of that nine, five of us were under the weather. Curse the psycho warm\cold weather) So it was BBQ-steaks and two Ugly Bettys, a little bit of coughing,a few drinks and some homemade cantelope ice cream, then the first LOST (the previous week's taped episode) At 9:50pm we thanked out hosts again for a wonderful meal, evening and taping U-B and LOST and quickly scurried home to catch the current evening's episode (thankfully, living 2 blocks apart allows for such timely exits and entrances...)

By 11:00pm Didier was decidedly a bit sicker, and running another fever. By Friday morning he was having difficulty breathing; his chest was very tight, he was coughing and choking and now running a fever of 103.7'F (39.8'C) He called into work 'dead'. Having to leave for work, I left strict instructions: "Go see your Doctor this morning, and if he's not available go to Emergency."

I got a call at work by about 11:30am or so, he'd just got back home from the Emergency at St-Luc and it was confirmed... Pneumonia. 2 weeks of antibiotics*. Not good, but coulda been worse I guess... I mean he didn't need to be hospitalized. (Thankfully.)

I got home on Friday evening, checked in on my little guy who had by now perfected his Mimi imitation from La Boheme (heh) and aside from juice and ice water and the odd Tylenol, had been and continued to work on his transformation into a Bat and sleep in 'the cave' (a.k.a. master bedroom) I passed out myself on the living room sofa, tired as much from the week's work as my own nagging cough. I got up periodically to check on Mimi, get a new fever reading and fill the ice in his glass.

8:30am Saturday I got Mimi up and prepared to get him to see the Doctor (an appointment he made before going to the Emergency, just in case that didn't pan out... you can only wait in a stuffy Emergency room waiting room so long). We cabbed the whole 6 blocks down Rene-Levesque and waited til 10:40am for his 9:50am appointment. Within a few minutes of seeing the Dr, answering a few questions and asking a few of our own, Doctor wrote a note excusing Mimi from work til the 16th. Bed-rest and little else on the agenda.

By 11am we were back home and I got Mimi a little something to eat (the first food since Thursday night), he took his minivans , er I mean antibiotics, and was sent back to bed.

After making a quick list I was off to the Grocery Store collecting what foods Mimi requested along with some Ensure and a little extra soup, soup and soup... By the time I got back home I had morphed into full-on Florence Nightingale-mode, to match his Mimi-mode.

The remainder of the weekend included much sleeping, pill taking and fever by good-patient Mimi. Sleep, checking in on Patient Mimi, and movie-watching** by faithful Florence.

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I can't help but wonder how a parent feels when one of their children is sick. I mean, there's only so much you can do. You can check on them a million times an hour, wish and hope that they get better quick, cater to their wants and needs and still after all of that, feel completely ineffectual, 110% useless and incapable of doing enough to actually improve their condition...

I checked on Didier as often as I thought would just border under the line of acceptable - show my concern and readiness to help, while not raising his blood pressure by hounding him. You want them to rest, but you want to be sure whatever they need, you're getting for them as soon as possible. Asking questions while trying not to ask too many and upset them. Putting food in front of them, asking them, telling them to eat,they have to eat, when you know damn well when you're sick you don't have an appetite and being told to eat just makes it worse.

So yea... I don't have any kids, and I'm glad, 'cause I don't think I have the heart to see them sick. Dealing with the one you love, who's also a grown adult is hard enough, because there's nothing more retching to your hear-strings than when someone you love is ill. If it were a little child, my heart would completely break.

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...and how was your your cold, wet and windy weekend?

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Mimi is convalescing peacefully this week, Florence will run a double-feature at Lantheus Medical Imaging during the day and nurse Patient-Mimi evenings.

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* not so much pills as small minivans. Bright Yellow and in pairs. 'Cause really, why try and swallow one Minivan when you can swallow two!?!

** Florence can now recite whole segments of dialogue from Beauty Shop which appeared to run 24-7 over the weekend (in reality he only watched it 3 times) He also realizes he really enjoys a Queen Latifah flick... (Last Holiday, being tried and true) Also on his list of features: Monster House, Meet the Robinsons (twice) Music and Lyrics, The Jerk and The Hunt for Red October (not necessarily in that order).