"We'll leave the light on for you", NEIL.

60% done.

It's been a crazy week in our home. Neil has been sick with a very nasty stomach flu for 3 days, and he barely left his bedroom that entire time. He'd sleep for 10 hours DURING THE DAY. Also, he'd get violently sick at times. Clearly, this bug was not something I wanted for myself. So, in the spirit of our "in sickness and in health" wedding vows... I almost sent him to a HOTEL. That makes me sound like a heartless bitch, yes, but think of it: I didn't want to jeopardize my chances of getting this CyberKnifing completed this week. Not to sound dramatic, but my life kind of depends on it. We've been planning it for months. The procedures, the scans, everything had to be timed perfectly. I worried that a wretched flu could potentially render me incapable of lying completely still on a table every day for over an hour. In the Cyber(Knife)World, you can't exactly get up and run to the bathroom to barf anytime you want.

I called my mom to run the hotel idea by her. I opened the call with, "I think I'm going to ask Neil to leave home." A little context might have helped. Poor mom. Like I'd start divorce proceedings THIS week.

I then asked a doctor friend (WLS) how to avoid getting such a bug, and she suggested this was probably not an airborne illness, so he could stay home, though we should use separate bathrooms.

We decided to quarantine Neil to our bedroom and the upstairs bathroom. He called the room his "pen". He was home from work for 2 days, and I avoided him like the plague. One home, two parallel lives, never intersecting. It was our little trial dysfunctional marriage.

Today, Wednesday, he went back to the office, but I awoke with a sharp stomachache. I started cussing like a sailor. (truck driver?) (dentist?) "IF I CAUGHT THIS FREAKING FLU, I WILL BE SO PISSED OFF!" That's the g-rated version.

Oddly enough, the stomach pain has lasted all day, but it has not led to anything greater. (by "greater", I suppose I mean projectile manifestations of the flu). The stomachache felt very high, just below my ribs. Then I started to wonder, "Wait, am I having LIVER PAIN? I mean, they are quite literally killing part of that organ as we speak. Maybe that smarts a bit?" I wasn't told I'd have any pain, really, only fatigue. And after today's 'Knifing (at the clinic, they call it "therapy", but I still prefer the term "'Knifing"), I definitely felt VERY TIRED. But what's all this moderate (not severe, but annoying) pain? I feel like I got socked in the gut. Is it the beginning of a flu? PLEASE NO! Stay tuned.

ps- My mother-in-law deserves a big ol' pat on the back for being so helpful all week. She even stayed extra long today and picked Betty up from school so I could rest.