Healthy Dose of Reality

Health. Feeling good. It's one of those things we take for granted until we feel like crap. Then it's all moan and groan and Good Lord help me I'm never going to feel better again.

I have been more sick this year than I have in a long time. I was expecting it - they say your first year of teaching is the worst. At least I haven't contracted pink eye yet (knock on wood). But everything else, from sinus infections to stomach bugs, has come a'knocking multiple times.

Violet's first year in daycare has gone down pretty much like mine. Between the two of us and Matt (the only one yet to log a trip to the ER, again, knock on wood), someone is always sneezing, sniffling and complaining in our house.

So I'm trying to be more conscious of the times I do feel good (for the record, this is not really one of those times) so I can better appreciate what it is like to breath freely through both nostrils, or swallow without wincing, or speak without sounding like a sixty-year-old two-pack-a-day smoker.

But here's the deal - despite all the colds and viruses and general crud going around, on the whole we have been relatively healthy. This fact was brought home this week as I indulged in one of my favorite guilty pleasures, MTV's Teen Mom 2. One of the young moms happened to get pregnant with twins (don't even get me started) but if that wasn't stressful enough, now it seems like one of the baby girls might have something seriously wrong with her. While her sister is right on track with milestones like rolling over and putting weight on her legs, baby Ali is being left behind. Every time mom Leah takes her to a doctor, the visit ends in tears as the news is always inconclusive and frightening - potential problems with her spine, her brain. Just by looking at her, you can tell there is something wrong with this baby, especially when compared to her twin. And while generally I watch this series with an eye roll and a "you've got to be kidding me" at the stupid situations these moms insist on putting themselves in, this week I was tearing up watching the agony one young girl is going through as she deals with the potentially horrifying unknowns. The worst feeling in the world as a mom is when there is something wrong with your child and you can't control it, you can't fix it. And as much as I think these girls make stupid choices and continue to go back to bad relationships and willingly become the poster children for every teen mom stat on record, my heart can't help but break for Leah and her situation. And watching her story, it reminded me that a few runny noses are nothing. On the whole, we are so healthy and happy that I should be shouting my Thank Yous to the heavens every day.

But that's what happens when you feel good. You forget, you take it for granted. Until the next bug invades your body and leaves you a shivering, pathetic mess clutching your kleenex. So while I may be battling allergies, a sinus infection and laryngitis, you know what? I'm still so, so grateful for a healthy, happy family, including a certain baby girl who is so eager to laugh and give kisses and share her sweetness.