Being Sick On The Fire Schedule

If you’re the spouse of a firefighter, I should give you this warning: Don’t Get Sick. Ever. Of course, most parents dread the process of getting sick themselves whether they work outside the home, inside the home or have a spouse that leaves for 24 to 48 hours at a time. As I’m currently in the middle of a 36 hour shift on my own, I’m hoping that I can start breathing properly some time today.

The truth is that spouses of firefighters aren’t magically immune from germs. We get sick just like any other parent. While every parenting unit has unique challenges when it comes to issues like these, fire families are often dealing with a schedule that is both beneficial and frustrating. Beneficial in the fact that for most professional firefighters, the sick spouse gets a two day reprieve while the firefighter is home. Frustrating in the fact that the spouse often has 24 hours at home, alone, sick with sick kids. 24 hours can seem like an eternity when you’re feverish and overtired with feverish and overtired children.

Here are some tips for parents who are sick when their spouse goes off to the fire department for a 24 hour (or longer) shift:

• Drink your fluids! Not just coffee. Keep a water bottle with you at all times.
• Don’t forget to eat. Even if you don’t have an appetite. Eat light but you need energy!
• Make sure you have all medicine before your spouse leaves for work. It’s really discouraging to realize that you don’t have enough cold/cough/fever medicine part way through the day.
• Rest! Nap when the kids nap. If the kids don’t nap, spread sleeping bags on the floor and watch a movie. By watch a movie, I do mean that you should be dozing.
• Keep in contact with your spouse. Don’t be brave just because your spouse is working. If you need to go to the hospital, be honest.
• Leave the house clean up for when you’re feeling better. A clean house makes everyone feel better, it’s true, but you need to be resting. Get back in bed. The dishes will get done.
• Accept help! If your mother, father-in-law, best friend or neighbor want to brave the germs in your house to bring you a meal or watch the kids for an hour, allow them to do so. Time “off” for a bit allows you to rest. I cannot stress how important resting is while you’re sick!

Furthermore, when your spouse comes home in the morning (or whenever the end of their shift occurs), give them a hug, an update on the kids’ health and head to the shower for a very steamy wash off and then get thee to bed! Your spouse did just work 24 hours. (Or more!) But you’re sick. Your spouse will understand. Get steamed up and get some more rest. Everyone who has tried to nap in a house with two kids who were awake knows that it doesn’t result in a very restful rest. Go rest now, while you can.

We’re surviving. I still have a lead balloon in my lungs. BigBrother, on one hand, is almost completely well as he’s just dealing with a runny nose and some Grumpies right now. LittleBrother, on the other hand, is now spiking a fever and dealing with those early days of this sickness. Thankfully, I’m well enough, minus the inability to breathe deeply, to care for him in a mostly coherent way while FireDad is working a 36 hour shift. I think I’ll still go back to bed when he gets home tomorrow but I really hope it’s the last day that I have to do such a thing. I’m tired of being sick while my kids are sick! It’s exhausting.

Now if we can only keep FireDad from catching our germs. Maybe he should have stayed at work all week…