Another first

Well, we had an interesting weekend. It was supposed to be our first night away from the kids together since Mateo was born. Yes, it's been three and a half years since we went away by ourselves. We never meant for it to be that long, but that's how it turned out. Apa, bless his sainted heart, has become a pro with the munchkins and offered to come over and babysit for a whole weekend, and so, naturally, we said yes! This happened several months ago, but actually getting it scheduled took a bit longer than expected.

Anyway, he came over on Saturday morning and we said goodbye to the kiddos and headed out. There was just one problem. Actually, two. First, I had had an awful week last week, and I mean awful. It turned out, in hindsight, that the decongestant the doctor put me on, to help the antibiotics get in there and clear up my sinus infection, can escalate anxiety in people who are already susceptible to it. Which, as we all know, I am. So, I spent much of the week in tears and on the verge of a panic attack. I finally called the doctor's office to follow up, late in the week, and they were like, um, you need to stop taking that medicine. Which I did, and it seemed to help, although I had gotten myself into quite a state by that point.

However, by that point, the antibiotics had kicked in and the kind I'm on is apparently hard on the stomach. So much so that when I woke up on Saturday morning, after several days of feeling pretty queasy, I felt like I was going to puke. And I did. Not then, no, no. Only after holding it together long enough for Sacha and I to get onto I-5 en route to the beach. Thank goodness she managed to pull over in time, or it would have been even grosser. Great way to start a date weekend, right?

We tried turning around and heading back to Portland, thinking we would just spend the day poking around the city and then find somewhere to spend the night later, but I was in bad shape. My stomach still felt awful, I had barely eaten for several days, the anxiety had never completely resolved, I was besieged with guilt for ruining our first weekend alone in three years, and let's just say that I was not myself. Sacha, bless her heart, suggested that we just scrap our plans and go to urgent care. And so we did. They checked me out, pronounced my ears still full of fluid, gave me a gentler antibiotic to start over with, along with a different decongestant, gave me something to help me calm down, and sent us on our way.

At this point, we could have just given up and gone home and crawled into bed. But we still had at least 24 hours until we needed to get the kids, so we decided to try to regroup. Sacha called around and found a room at a nice hotel downtown. We stopped by home, knowing Apa and the kids were planning to be out, and grabbed me some gentle food for my tummy. Then, we drove downtown and checked into the hotel.

"How was your trip?", the concierge asked, which made us giggle, since we had just driven across the river. Then, when we mentioned the restaurant we wanted to visit that night, he offered to call and get us a reservation. He totally hooked us up with a corner table and we had our second experience of having the chef send out fun little tastes of things just for us. It was just what the doctor ordered after such a rough morning.

After dinner, we enjoyed some time just reading in the blissful quiet of our hotel room, and then, of course, a long night of sleep with no interruptions. We capped it off with massages and breakfast the next day, before heading home to see the kids. In the end, we definitely salvaged the experience and ended up having a really nice time. It was wonderful to have some time to ourselves, and also wonderful to see the kids again. All reports indicate that they had a fun time with Apa. Thanks again, Apa!!

We spent the rest of the day doing family stuff. We took a run together and then went to the garden store to buy supplies for the container garden Sacha had been plotting. And here we are, at Monday again. I'm not going to lie - whenever I get into one of these anxiety trenches, it sometimes takes me some time to dig out - but I hope that I'll continue to feel better, both physically and mentally, given a little more time. And, Sacha and I are already hoping to plan another weekend together. Hopefully the next time will go better right from the beginning!