Thanksgiving With My Friend “Bronchitis”
(This post is purposefully tongue-in-cheek. It’s the only way to deal with a mess like managing a holiday with an acute illness on top.)
Well here we are in the United States one day away from Thanksgiving 2017, and I have bacterial bronchitis. I’ve been trying to fend off a cold since Friday evening. Unfortunately, all the vitamin C, fluids, and breathing treatments did not stop the inevitable chest congestion. For once I would like to get a cold and not have it turn into an infection, or cause a major asthma attack!
Thanksgiving Food
Okay, I’m done complaining. Now on to how to get Thanksgiving dinner on the table with no energy. Thanks to my lovely, eldest daughter who saved our stuffing recipe to Dropbox, I can actually make the stuffing. Youngest son drove me to the grocery store, and pushed the cart to help me get groceries yesterday.
Why, you ask, would I be shopping three days before Thanksgiving? Why put it off that late? No money was available till Friday’s deposit cleared the bank, that’s why. Do I live pretty much disability check to disability check? You betcha. Doesn’t everyone?
Right, back to Thanksgiving. I’m in charge of making stuffing. This was not well thought out, because I cannot tolerate wheat at all. I definitely do not want a stomach ache on Thanksgiving Day. I planned on making a small gluten-free version for myself. Oh, the well made plans of mice and women!
So now I have to decide whether I have the energy to make two batches of stuffing. Yeah, right. I’m also kind of queasy at the moment. The thought of all that rich food is nauseating
My second son is doing the turkey, and my two daughters are handling the other side dishes. My parents are bringing dessert. Thank God for the ability to divide the work, because this lady CANNOT do it all. My youngest is getting recruited to help me chop celery and onions tomorrow, when he has an early dismissal from school.
I had wanted to make myself a gluten-free pie, so I’m not tempted to eat my mom’s pie. If I have the energy, I’ll do that tomorrow as well. If not, I’ll have to eat cranberry sauce for dessert and that might be all I want. That, and a bite of turkey.
Cleaning
This section should seriously just be a bunch of rolling-on-the floor-laughing emojis! I wish I knew how to get an emoji plug-in, but I don’t have the energy for that. LOL! I’m doing well just writing this post. You know that Fly Lady schedule I told you about last week, well being sick on top of chronic illness has made that baby crash and burn.
My kitchen floor is seriously about to walk itself out of the house! It hasn’t been mopped in so long, I cannot even remember when it was last done. Add in that two young, adult sons have been doing car repairs, and a bathroom sink replacement last weekend, and well I have a mess in both the kitchen and the upstairs bathroom. That sink is still not operational BTW. The water supply lines are too short and they still haven’t connected up the drain pipe.
So if you don’t want to use baby wipes to clean your hands, you better go to the basement bathroom people. My kids won’t mind. My perfectionist father will. Sorry, dad. This is real life.
So How Do You Do a Holiday When Acutely Ill?
- Delegate, delegate, delegate!
- Go with the flow. You can’t change reality!
- Just don’t do (fill in the blank).
- Use paper plates and store bought food if you can afford to.
- Reschedule your celebration to another day if nothing else works.
That’s all the sage wisdom and advice I have for you this week. Keep trucking dear readers, and Happy Thanksgiving! Kathy
You know you need this down-to-earth wisdom in your inbox. What are you waiting for?
P. S. : It turned out to be a pretty nice Thanksgiving all the same.
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Ugh—being sick stinks! This was my first Thanksgiving gluten-free (I’m on an anti-inflammatory diet as part of a Lyme protocol). I bought gluten-free stuffing…maybe not homemade, but it worked! Hope you’re feeling better now, and thank goodness for delegation
Thank you so much for this Kathy – your house sounds just like mine and your section on cleaning and the emojis made me laugh!! Having attempted to clean my bathroom this morning after son number 1(age 21) used it, I just despair – they really do not seem to see what I do. As for my kitchen floor well….we won’t go there! Glad you had a great Thanksgiving – countdown to Christmas now!
Thank you, Claire, for reading and commenting. I’m glad I made you laugh and that I’m not the only one with a nutty house.
I hope you are feeling better! Your suggestions are very practical and useful. Go with the flow, be flexible. We probably do that more often than we realize with a chromic illness!
Thank you, Cathy for reading and commenting. I’m feeling better chest-wise,less coughing and mucus, but the fatigue is awful.
My holiday turned out nice thanks to my kids helping with the food. My daughter made the gluten-free stuffing. No gluten free pie got made and I cheated with mom’s, which lead to heartburn. The nicest part was having my Navy son home as it was last Thanksgiving when I saw him last. I’m really exhausted.
I’m so sorry to hear you’re unwell 🙁 I can indeed tell it must be quite bad, just by the difference from your usual writing tone. I am recovering from a cold myself (I panicked as I was supposed to fly on the same day and feared a flare), and totally understand the frustration of a weak immune system. I truly hope you recover soon. Take good care and just do what you can, which I’m sure you are!
Hoping your flight was uneventful. Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts.