A month of Mucinex and a mutiny on our immunity

stop resisting what is

a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go doooown

I’m writing to you in the midst of what was supposed to be a special dreamy snowy adventure in Park City, Utah. It’s been a doozy. In the 4 weeks I’ve been here, the place I’ve been to the most – besides the mountain to ski and snowboard – is Walgreens.

We’ve been riddled with the flu, sinus infections, respiratory issues, hacking coughs, and extreme fatigue. Me and Walgreens on Iron Horse Drive, we are tight. I’ve Door Dashed over-the-counter meds from there 4 times, drove to their pharmacy more times I can count on my hand, and I have bought nearly every kind of sinus, nasal decongestant, cough suppressant, nasal rinse, and pain reliever on aisle 3. I’ve checked temperatures, been to urgent care, ached, and doused myself in my own pity party, asking myself why did we get so sick, why now?

My family has been up vertically 8,000 feet carving down mountain tops and, in the same week, horizontal in our beds and couches shivering with fevers.

We infected our friends who visited us and we didn’t get to hang with other friends who came into town to ski with us.

We are here for another two weeks and what I’ve realized is that, when riding a rollercoaster, all we can do is buckle up and go for it. It’s going to pull our stomachs into our throats and the experience will spit us out with a bundle of emotions all in one go, as experienced recently — a single day can conjure up fear, sadness, disappointment, excitement, relief, and happiness.

When I thought we were all finally getting better, my son and husband felt ill again last weekend. After screaming a few WTFs in my head, I came to a point of acceptance. I thought we were through with sickness but obviously I wasn’t finished with learning whatever lesson the universe had out for me.

My son hadn’t left the house for the entire weekend, suffering massive sinus headaches, and we were all going stir crazy. On Monday, while he cried with a blanket over his head, he said “I wish this day never happened!”

I couldn’t have guessed that exactly 4 hours later, with the assistance of a pain reliever, antibiotics and a sinus spray, we’d be out of the house, and snow tubing. After a couple hours spinning down icy slides in inflated tubes, my son announced “this is the best day ever!”

I was in disbelief. Then I remembered what my wise therapist said in a recent session:

Stop resisting what is.

Resisting is too hard. The resistance is what made me feel more ill than the symptoms itself.

I can only do so much to keep us healthy and to keep us feeling good. God knows how much immunity gummies I’ve pushed on my kids, the Wellness Formula I’ve overdosed, and all the nagging I did to get everyone to wash their hands. Illness just happened and there’s absolutely nothing I could do about it except ride the ride.

As of today, we all physically feel good.

And we remind ourselves that having our health trumps everything else.

We gained perspective. If you haven’t seen, Utah and Colorado have suffered a snow deficit at the start of this season and it dampened the beginning of our trip. With the Christmas crowds smushed into a handful of runs in Park City, we decided conditions were unsafe and unsavory. We were fortunate to take the beautiful drive to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, twice during our trip to experience the picturesque shake of a snowglobe on the slopes.

Now that we’re back in Park City, there’s no forecast for snow in the near future and while it’s a bummer to see such a dry season, I no longer care. We arrived in Utah as snow snobs, turning our noses on the unfortunate season. Now that we are on the other side of feeling healthy after feeling like poop for weeks, I’m grateful we have snow on the mountain, however icy or slushy or whatever conditions it may be.

Plus, in all our housebound days, there were many gifts. When sick on vacation, I was able to focus on my kids, with no other distractions from our life back home. Getting sick out of town made us closer, quite literally, as we crawled into each others’ beds and blankets ill. But the bond we have as a family was forged into super steel. We have been reading more together, playing games, jigsaw puzzling, movie marathoning, doing yoga, baking, cleaning together, drawing, doing schoolwork (we have a wonderful zoom tutor for our long getaway), and exploring a new town.

And we have had many amazing days snowboarding, and now learning to ski as a family. We have embraced lots of bluebird days, a few powder puff fun days, and many family bonding days. We also get to end our trip in Park City for their last run with the Sundance Festival.

We were so fortunate to even get to do this trip and I’m grateful for it all — even the illness, the resistance, and the eventual acceptance.

a family of snowboarders learning how to ski