Can't Catch a Break

My last post was definitely too optimistic about things looking up. Before my COVID cough had fully resolved, our son brought home another flu-like virus from daycare that hit all of us very hard and then turned into bacterial infections for all of us that eventually took us all to urgent care for antibiotics right before Thanksgiving. My case was so bad that I needed steroids and an inhaler as well, although thankfully it was not COVID and nobody needed to be hospitalized. That made Thanksgiving and the weeks after quite miserable, and on top of it, my wife was laid off as part of a broad reduction in force by her company, to preserve capital, and we still (more than a month later) haven't been able to get Anthem Blue Cross to cover our December healthcare expenses despite our COBRA administrator having spoken with them directly about it and filed the necessary paperwork twice to extend our coverage under her plan (as a partner, I would bear the full cost of my firm's health insurance plan anyway, and doing COBRA under her plan is still cheaper and subsidized for a few months as part of her severance). The antibiotics and steroids helped with the acute symptoms, but we all are back to lingering productive coughs, and my ribs are still sore from the acute illness, when I think I cracked one of them from coughing so hard and persistently. And with my wife reaching the halfway point of her pregnancy, she isn't physically able to do much to help with childcare and housework, and she's quite short-tempered, so I'm juggling a lot and we're all a bit on edge. It hasn't made for a very pleasant holiday season, and I'm already being dragged into work I need to do next week, so it doesn't feel much like Christmastime except for the literal darkness of the solstice. I did make a point of getting the tree up and decorated, but it was later than usual this year and I haven't had the energy to put up other decorations. It's just one day at a time right now.

Still, my parents are coming on Wednesday, and we'll have our second Christmas with them on Thursday, and I do have an out of office message up, so maybe I'll be able to unwind enough by then to take some comfort in the season. And we hope it will be a happy holiday for our son, who at two is just old enough to start to appreciate it. So there is still some light in the world. But I could really use a break.