Being Thankful In The Midst Of Sickness

Most of my posts are about chronic illness and often my own experiences with being ill. But today, for Thankful Thursday, I wanted to focus on something that is always more challenging than my own trials: when my child is sick.

Strep has invaded our home, and my little girl is the sickest I’ve ever seen her in nearly 6 years. And I handle my own illness much better than when she is ill. When it’s me, I have a sense of control since I know what my own needs are and can somewhat predict my path to wellness. I’ve lived in this body for 40+ years.

But when it’s her, I find myself at a loss. Even though she’s great at communicating to me exactly what she needs, I always feel that I should find the key to miraculously end her suffering, although I know that’s impossible. I am no magician.

Despite my feelings of helplessness, I’ve still found reasons to be grateful:

We’ve been up most of the night with an unrelenting cough. But at least we get to sleep in a warm bed and can catch up on rest tomorrow if needed. 

She’s had a fever longer than she’s ever had one before. Thank goodness for antibiotics, though. They are working to eliminate this bacteria from her body slowly but surely. I can’t even imagine the course of this illness without them.

I hate seeing her so miserable and not being able to magically make her symptoms evaporate. Thankfully, she is rarely sick. This too shall pass. 

She is missing day 4 of her beloved Taekwondo camp. I am grateful I have a job that allows me to work from home and be present with her. She’ll return soon when her body has healed.

My throat and head are both beginning to hurt, and my temperature is rising. But at least she is feeling better. And I’ve had the privilege of being her faithful caretaker while she has been sick. If she has passed the strep baton to me, at least I’ll be back in familiar territory with me being the one who is ill and not her. 

Even though I’m most likely on the road to more physical misery than I typically experience, thanks to a gnarly little microbe called streptococcus, at least I live in a time when there are medications to help battle infection and to ease the worst of the symptoms.

It’s difficult to remain positive when we or those we love are terribly ill. If we look more deeply into our situations, however, we’ll find that there are still some things we can appreciate.

Even if you are having a rough day, what have you found to be grateful for?