GROWING PAYNES

Let me just caution everyone to be careful what you wish for. Truly!!!!  My whole hesitation with starting a blog was that Ididn’t really feel that our lives were interesting enough that people would want to log on for an update each week.  Well, ever since I started this blog our lives have become seemingly more intersting.  Now, that can be expected with a new baby on the way.  Things are expected to change and definitly get more interesting with a little one in the mix, but I was not ready for what happened this week!!!!!!! 

I will just start off by filling everyone in on the last few months…June 27th Josh and I found out we were pregnant…July 27th Josh deployed…October 2 Josh comes home…October 16 Josh leaves unexpectedly for mission to Europe…Nov 1st, are you ready for this???…JOSH COMES HOME WITH SWINE FLU!!!!!!!  Thats right… I’ve seen my husband a total of 14 days in the last 3 months and when he comes home I can’t even hug him

I have to clear up the fact that this is not a confirmed case of H1N1, but it is assumed that his entire crew got it during their tour around Europe.  Thankfully, they all put the puzzle pieces together before they got home and potentially infected all of us.  About half way through their trip one of Josh’s crew members became severely ill and experienced what he called the worst 2 days of his life…fever, chills, achy body…like someone hit him with a hammer all over his body.  Being a typical military man he told no one of his sickness and just thought he was run down from all the travel.  Fast forward a week…the night before the guys were coming back to the US they were all sitting around talking and Josh complained of a little bit of a tickle in the back of his throat.  Another pilot also commented that he had the same thing.  And then it came out…everyone on his crew had experineced the same thing on their trip and it manifested itself into full blown flu like symptoms.  Well the guys went to bed…Josh woke up the next morning with a cough but the other pilot woke up feeling just how the other guys described…horrible.  Once the crew got back to the US they were met by the flight docs at the plane and were evaluated.  They were all assumed to have Swine Flu.  Apparently they don’t test for it anymore as the test were deemed to give false negatives 50% of the time anyway.  As a result we just have to proceed as though Josh has it!!!!!  

Now you all have to understand my sheer panic when I heard about this.  I have been debating over the past 3 months on whether or not I was going to get the vaccine once it came out because of the extereme complications a pregnant woman can experience with this strain of the flu.  When Josh called me and told me the news I debated for 24 hours if I was even gonna let him in my house :-)  I seriously was not!!!!!! After several conversations with my doctor and some friends in the medical field I realized that keeping my husband away for another 2 weeks was not only impractical but a little cold hearted So, I started preparing the fort for his arrival and making a plan.  

As of now Josh is quarantined in our upstairs.  He has a bedroom and bathroom all to himself.  When it is feeding time…I make his food and take it halfway up the stairs.  Once I get to the bottom, he comes down, with his mask on, and takes his food up to the top of the stairs.  I sit at the bottom of the stairs and we eat dinner together   We sit and think about how we used to be normal.  Josh says that things like this never happened to him before he knew me   Josh has been home for 3 days now and has only come down the stairs twice and oh boy am I ready when he does…I Lysol every doorway he walks through and he has to Lysol evey surface he touches.  Those are not doctors orders…those are my orders!!!  And I know Josh really loves me because he does it with a smile.  He is just happy I let him come home.  

I cannot end this post without giving glory to God.  It might seem weird, but our family has been blessed through this whole thing, though we are not completely in the clear yet.  First, I praise God for keeping His hand upon Josh and sparing him from the extreme symptoms the rest of his crew experienced. Execpt for the isolation I am subjecting him to,  Josh has only suffered from a moderate to severe hacking cough and a low grade temperature of about 100 degrees.  This is the third day he has been home and he has been free of a fever since Sunday and the cough has subsided for the most part.  Secondly, I praise God for this precious time with my husband.  This separation is definitly something we would have never willing done, but it has given us an opportunity to really cherish each other.  I am so happy to serve Josh during this time and I know he really appreciates it.  And finally I praise God for making me face my fears and feel that he has better equipped me for parenthood.  The Swine Flu has weighed heavily on my mind as I have tried to keep myself and baby healthy.  God just showed me that I am not in control of my circumstances and I cannot prevent anything from happening for the most part.  But what I can do is trust in Him and know what ever happens “His grace is sufficient for me” and my family.

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