It’s sickfic time :))
Epilepsy + fevers and sleep deprivation generally doesn’t = a very good situation...
Epilepsy + fevers and sleep deprivation generally doesn’t = a very good situation...
“Noooooooo” Anna whines, hiding her head under the pillow. “You have to get up, Len.” Anna Shakes her head “Noooooooo!!” She half whines half yells from under the pillow. With a sigh I sit back down on the bed and manage to practically wrench the pillow from her arms “Why don’t you want to get up?” Anna turns her head and looks at me, giving a less than pleased look “Tired.” She says simply “Well, you can take a nap later, but first you really need to get up.” I pause and look at the clock “We have things to do today, remember?” Anna simple smushes her face back into the mattress and groans
With an extreme amount of reluctance, and no doubt a solid amount of regret Anna does get up eventually and slightly cheers up having had something to eat and a shower, but still remains quite tired and doesn’t exactly mince words during our meeting with Jarl Elisif...or a number of other people we happen to cross paths with. And, After business is dealt with, immediately trudges home to go take a nap.
Steve had stopped by for a visit in between teaching and concerts and stays for dinner which causes Anna to ever so slightly become a tad bit less grumpy. By about 8:30 Steve comes in from the room where he and Anna has been playing with Vigilance holding a crying and seemingly quite upset Anna. “I think somebody needs to go to bed.” Steve says handing her over to be “You want to go to bed?” I ask and get a sniffle and a nod in return. “Alright, come here cutie.” I take Anna while Steve returns downstairs and helps clean up what little cleaning is left of tonight’s dinner, what a helpful fellow. I can see why he’s well thought of where he lives. Giving Anna a quick bath, her medicine which being still rather upset no doubt due to sleep deprivation she nearly throws back up, and finally put her to bed.
After a few minutes of consoling Anna calms back down and quickly falls asleep. Waiting just a minute or two more I quietly slip out of the room, turning off the light and shutting the door before going back downstairs. “Overtiredness?” Steve asks and I come back down, I nod “Probably, she’s been waking up with nightmares every now and then, and we’re in the middle of allergy season.” Steve makes a small humming sound in reply “I was wondering why I was sneezing so much on my way over, that explains a lot.” With a slight groan he stands up, even with me standing on the first couple of steps the difference in height is quite apparent.
“Well, I should probably get going, it’s getting late and I don’t really feel like dealing with zombies and the like.” While draugr are similar enough, from Issys recounts Zombies sound far more terrifying...particularly the headless ones “Goodnight then, thanks for coming over, it was good to see you.” I tell him as he puts on his shoes and he smiles “You too.” He pauses and gives vigilance a pat on the head “and you too buddy.” He says to the dog, who wags his tail and barks happily before running off downstairs, I guess it must be time for animals to go to sleep as well.
Being as quiet as possible I go back upstairs and get ready for bed myself. Anna lays sprawled out clutching her stuffed bunny, but seems content. With careful maneuvering I move her just until I’m able to crawl into bed, and then she returns to her sprawled out position, just this time with an arm and a leg sprawled out over me instead of the bed...but, I’m not complaining, it’s too late for just a thing. Content, and tired enough I lay down and within minutes fall asleep.
The peaceful silence of the early morning is shattered when I hear a scream. Instantly awake I open my eyes and sit up with a start to find Anna sitting up and shaking slightly. “Len...you okay?” I ask lightly touching her shoulder and she flinches with a slight scared noise, until she realizes it’s just me. Then the scared expression on her face turns sad as tears begin to stream down her face “Did you have a nightmare? Flashback?” I ask wiping away a tear. Anna nods with a whimper and begins to cry more. I hold out my arms silently and with a small noise Anna crawls into my lap, burying her face against my shoulder, continuing to cry. “You want to talk about it?” I ask running a hand through her hair and get a shake of the head in answer. “Okay, that’s fine.” I reply, and after a moments silence Anna offers up one word of explanation “Helgan.” I think if I were arrested for something I didn’t do and nearly had my head cut off before a dragon attacked I’d have nightmares too, not that I don’t already have them, that is.
After some time Anna stops crying for the most part and instead simply sits there silently trying to calm her breathing. It must be two or three in the morning, at this point. “Do you want anything to drink or eat?” Anna nods and signs “milk” a glass of milk it is then, if we have any left. Carefully I set Anna down beside me and with a quick pat on the head, get up and go downstairs.
To my luck, and somewhat surprise, there is in fact a bit of milk left, just enough for a glass now and cereal in the morning. Vigilance comes upstairs curiously having head the noise to investigate, and follows me back upstairs, tail wagging excitedly when he sees Anna and walks over to the side of the bed, sitting down. “Here you go.” I hand Anna the glass which she slowly drinks in between petting Vigilance. Eventually he seems to get bored, or tired, and returns back downstairs to his dogbed.
“Feel like talking now?” I enquire, Anna shrugs “Just the same old playthough of events, don’t know why it made me so upset this time.” I look out the window, the sky is beginning to ever so slowly lose its blackness and then a deep navy instead. “Well, usually when we don’t feel well, allergies, cold, stress, sleep deprivation, whatever, we tend to have weird dreams. That’s all I can offer for explanation.” Anna nods “Makes sense. Allergies haven’t allowed for easy sleep the past few weeks.” Whiterun has a fairly mild allergy season, but Solitude, being in a wooded area is a different beast entirely.
Having finished her milk, Anna yawns sleepily and lays back down. “Did that help?” I ask falling back against the pillows, and get a sleepy nod in return. “That’s good.” Anna gives me a small half asleep smile and curls up against me, much calmer than before. For the remainder of the night there are no more disturbances, Anna sleeps peacefully while I remain in a dreamless light sleep, with pockets of deep sleep every now and then.
Morning comes late, quite late. To the point I’m not even sure it would really be called morning...who knows, it might be afternoon already. I make a mental note to get the clock fixed before looking down as a feeling of dampness registers. Of course, it’s Anna, who sometimes drools in her sleep, mostly due to a bad habit of sticking the knuckle of her thumb in her mouth as she sleeps every now and then, not exactly sucking her thumb, but similar. Likely a peculiar sort of self soothing habit I guess. Thankfully I tend to keep a small washcloth on the bedside table for moments like this. With a bit of careful maneuvering I place the cloth between Anna’s head and myself to keep from further making a mess.
Laying there I watch the patterns of sunlight as they change on the ceiling and take the time to relax and look around the room. I’d never noticed how ornate the handles on the dresser really are, or the way the curtains ruffle with any slight gust of air.
Having gotten distracted, when I look down again I see a sleepy but curious pair of silver eyes looking at me. “Hi there.” I say running a hand through Anna’s hair and get a small noise in reply as if to say “hello” back at me. “Are you hungry?” A shake of the head. “Thirsty?” Another head shake. Hmmm, that’s not good. “Not at all?” A third shake of the head. “You should at least drink something, even if it’s just a little cup of water.” Anna whines slightly. Refusal to eat is surprisingly common, but refusal, and adamant refusal to drink is a bit more concerning. Sitting up with Anna in my lap I take the unattended cup of water that had been left by the bedside and hold it up to her. “Just a tiny bit?” I ask moving the cup closer, in reposnse Anna turns her head away and I frown, putting a head to her forehead briefly. It’s a bit warm, not burning, but enough to check. Putting the cup back on the table I move Anna off of me “You, stay here. I’ll be right back.” I say as I go to hunt down the thermometer.
“Aaaand you, my friend, have a fever...a hundred and one, fantastic.” I say sarcastically looking at the set of numbers, Anna frowns. “No wonder you don’t want to eat or drink...but you need to.” Anna frowns even more, her entire body seeming to droop. “C’mon, lets go get you something to drink.” Anna doesn’t get out of bed and instead holds out her arms as if to say “carry me?” With a slight eye roll, I oblige, picking her up. “You really are spoiled Anna, I hope you know that.” I get a faint sound that I think is a laugh in reply, along with a grin and an affectionate, if slightly painful headbutt against my shoulder.
With a fair amount of coxing a a small bit of bribery, Anna does eventually drink, and finishes both a cup of water, and a small bowl of chicken broth with some vegetables mixed in...and a teaspoon of rather disgusting medicine, before giving up and refusing anything else for the remainder of the morning and early afternoon.
Fevers combined with epilepsy can be a confusing, and potentially dangerous situation. Even a low grade fever makes Anna just a bit...out of it. Lethargic, temporarily regressed, irritable, all kinds of less than ideal things. Add sleep deprivation, allergies, and nightmares the previous night into the mix for an even less than ideal situation. Having finished her soup, Anna pushes it out of the way and replaces its spot with her head laying on her arms. “Still sleepy?” I ask. “No.” Anna says softly, the only real word I’ve heard out of her all day. “Your head hurt?” I get a slight head shake in return “tired.” As I have since learned very well, there is a clear and distinct difference between being “sleepy” and being “tired” while similar, they can be vastly different. “Do you want to go lay down again?” Anna pushes herself upright again “Shower first.” That sounds like a good idea, they tend to make her a bit more alert, and in general are rather helpful when fevers and the like make you rather sore.
Slowly and with a few near falls Anna walks back upstairs by herself and takes a brief lukewarm shower. She looks a bit better, but still isn’t acting quite normally yet “You….need a nap!” I say jokingly sitting on the edge of the bed which gets a small laugh out of Anna. “But I didn’t say you sounded like a pie with no filling!” Anna retorts. A full sentence, and a coherent one too! That’s an improvement for sure. “I know, but still, you should rest. You look like you need it.” Anna gives me a look “what are you saying I look like then?” I smile slightly “Someone with a fever that needs to break before said someone has a seizure.” Anna makes a small noise “true.” She says before laying back and grabbing her stuffed bunny to cuddle “I’ll be downstairs if you need me...don’t build a pillowfort this time instead of resting.” Anna makes a face in response “fineee” she sighs and tosses her bunny up in the air before catching it “you’re no fun.” She mutters. “Only because you have a fever.” Anna huffs and rolls over pulling the covers over her head. “I’ll come back up to check on you in an hour.” I say getting up, Anna gives me a thumbs up sticking her arm out from under the covers, and I shut the door as I go downstairs.
I find Anna fast asleep when I return, though drenched in a pool of sweat, and upon checking her temperature again, thankfully the fever has broken. I let her sleep for awhile, taking the time to read a bit of one of the books laying on the desk in the “to be read” pile, until Anna wakes up on her own. Anna rolls on to her back and sits up with a slightly disgusted noise, wiping the film of sweat off her arms. “Feeling better?” I inquire, and Anna looks over at me before nodding. “Except now I’m really in need of a shower...yuck.” I shrug, putting the book down “We needed to change these sheets anyways. You go shower, I’ll do that.” Anna throws the covers back and climbs out of bed “Sounds like a plan.” Anna grabs a set of clothes and heads off to take a shower, looking much more steady on her feet than a few hours ago, and leaving me to change the sheets in the meantime.
“Sorry for being whiny.” Anna apologizes over dinner. “No need to say sorry, if I had a fever in the middle of allergy season and was already sleep deprived I’d be whiny too. I’m glad you’re feeling better.” Anna smiles in reply. “I guess we learned the power of a nap then?” She asks-
“Yes we did.”
“Yes we did indeed…”
With an extreme amount of reluctance, and no doubt a solid amount of regret Anna does get up eventually and slightly cheers up having had something to eat and a shower, but still remains quite tired and doesn’t exactly mince words during our meeting with Jarl Elisif...or a number of other people we happen to cross paths with. And, After business is dealt with, immediately trudges home to go take a nap.
Steve had stopped by for a visit in between teaching and concerts and stays for dinner which causes Anna to ever so slightly become a tad bit less grumpy. By about 8:30 Steve comes in from the room where he and Anna has been playing with Vigilance holding a crying and seemingly quite upset Anna. “I think somebody needs to go to bed.” Steve says handing her over to be “You want to go to bed?” I ask and get a sniffle and a nod in return. “Alright, come here cutie.” I take Anna while Steve returns downstairs and helps clean up what little cleaning is left of tonight’s dinner, what a helpful fellow. I can see why he’s well thought of where he lives. Giving Anna a quick bath, her medicine which being still rather upset no doubt due to sleep deprivation she nearly throws back up, and finally put her to bed.
After a few minutes of consoling Anna calms back down and quickly falls asleep. Waiting just a minute or two more I quietly slip out of the room, turning off the light and shutting the door before going back downstairs. “Overtiredness?” Steve asks and I come back down, I nod “Probably, she’s been waking up with nightmares every now and then, and we’re in the middle of allergy season.” Steve makes a small humming sound in reply “I was wondering why I was sneezing so much on my way over, that explains a lot.” With a slight groan he stands up, even with me standing on the first couple of steps the difference in height is quite apparent.
“Well, I should probably get going, it’s getting late and I don’t really feel like dealing with zombies and the like.” While draugr are similar enough, from Issys recounts Zombies sound far more terrifying...particularly the headless ones “Goodnight then, thanks for coming over, it was good to see you.” I tell him as he puts on his shoes and he smiles “You too.” He pauses and gives vigilance a pat on the head “and you too buddy.” He says to the dog, who wags his tail and barks happily before running off downstairs, I guess it must be time for animals to go to sleep as well.
Being as quiet as possible I go back upstairs and get ready for bed myself. Anna lays sprawled out clutching her stuffed bunny, but seems content. With careful maneuvering I move her just until I’m able to crawl into bed, and then she returns to her sprawled out position, just this time with an arm and a leg sprawled out over me instead of the bed...but, I’m not complaining, it’s too late for just a thing. Content, and tired enough I lay down and within minutes fall asleep.
The peaceful silence of the early morning is shattered when I hear a scream. Instantly awake I open my eyes and sit up with a start to find Anna sitting up and shaking slightly. “Len...you okay?” I ask lightly touching her shoulder and she flinches with a slight scared noise, until she realizes it’s just me. Then the scared expression on her face turns sad as tears begin to stream down her face “Did you have a nightmare? Flashback?” I ask wiping away a tear. Anna nods with a whimper and begins to cry more. I hold out my arms silently and with a small noise Anna crawls into my lap, burying her face against my shoulder, continuing to cry. “You want to talk about it?” I ask running a hand through her hair and get a shake of the head in answer. “Okay, that’s fine.” I reply, and after a moments silence Anna offers up one word of explanation “Helgan.” I think if I were arrested for something I didn’t do and nearly had my head cut off before a dragon attacked I’d have nightmares too, not that I don’t already have them, that is.
After some time Anna stops crying for the most part and instead simply sits there silently trying to calm her breathing. It must be two or three in the morning, at this point. “Do you want anything to drink or eat?” Anna nods and signs “milk” a glass of milk it is then, if we have any left. Carefully I set Anna down beside me and with a quick pat on the head, get up and go downstairs.
To my luck, and somewhat surprise, there is in fact a bit of milk left, just enough for a glass now and cereal in the morning. Vigilance comes upstairs curiously having head the noise to investigate, and follows me back upstairs, tail wagging excitedly when he sees Anna and walks over to the side of the bed, sitting down. “Here you go.” I hand Anna the glass which she slowly drinks in between petting Vigilance. Eventually he seems to get bored, or tired, and returns back downstairs to his dogbed.
“Feel like talking now?” I enquire, Anna shrugs “Just the same old playthough of events, don’t know why it made me so upset this time.” I look out the window, the sky is beginning to ever so slowly lose its blackness and then a deep navy instead. “Well, usually when we don’t feel well, allergies, cold, stress, sleep deprivation, whatever, we tend to have weird dreams. That’s all I can offer for explanation.” Anna nods “Makes sense. Allergies haven’t allowed for easy sleep the past few weeks.” Whiterun has a fairly mild allergy season, but Solitude, being in a wooded area is a different beast entirely.
Having finished her milk, Anna yawns sleepily and lays back down. “Did that help?” I ask falling back against the pillows, and get a sleepy nod in return. “That’s good.” Anna gives me a small half asleep smile and curls up against me, much calmer than before. For the remainder of the night there are no more disturbances, Anna sleeps peacefully while I remain in a dreamless light sleep, with pockets of deep sleep every now and then.
Morning comes late, quite late. To the point I’m not even sure it would really be called morning...who knows, it might be afternoon already. I make a mental note to get the clock fixed before looking down as a feeling of dampness registers. Of course, it’s Anna, who sometimes drools in her sleep, mostly due to a bad habit of sticking the knuckle of her thumb in her mouth as she sleeps every now and then, not exactly sucking her thumb, but similar. Likely a peculiar sort of self soothing habit I guess. Thankfully I tend to keep a small washcloth on the bedside table for moments like this. With a bit of careful maneuvering I place the cloth between Anna’s head and myself to keep from further making a mess.
Laying there I watch the patterns of sunlight as they change on the ceiling and take the time to relax and look around the room. I’d never noticed how ornate the handles on the dresser really are, or the way the curtains ruffle with any slight gust of air.
Having gotten distracted, when I look down again I see a sleepy but curious pair of silver eyes looking at me. “Hi there.” I say running a hand through Anna’s hair and get a small noise in reply as if to say “hello” back at me. “Are you hungry?” A shake of the head. “Thirsty?” Another head shake. Hmmm, that’s not good. “Not at all?” A third shake of the head. “You should at least drink something, even if it’s just a little cup of water.” Anna whines slightly. Refusal to eat is surprisingly common, but refusal, and adamant refusal to drink is a bit more concerning. Sitting up with Anna in my lap I take the unattended cup of water that had been left by the bedside and hold it up to her. “Just a tiny bit?” I ask moving the cup closer, in reposnse Anna turns her head away and I frown, putting a head to her forehead briefly. It’s a bit warm, not burning, but enough to check. Putting the cup back on the table I move Anna off of me “You, stay here. I’ll be right back.” I say as I go to hunt down the thermometer.
“Aaaand you, my friend, have a fever...a hundred and one, fantastic.” I say sarcastically looking at the set of numbers, Anna frowns. “No wonder you don’t want to eat or drink...but you need to.” Anna frowns even more, her entire body seeming to droop. “C’mon, lets go get you something to drink.” Anna doesn’t get out of bed and instead holds out her arms as if to say “carry me?” With a slight eye roll, I oblige, picking her up. “You really are spoiled Anna, I hope you know that.” I get a faint sound that I think is a laugh in reply, along with a grin and an affectionate, if slightly painful headbutt against my shoulder.
With a fair amount of coxing a a small bit of bribery, Anna does eventually drink, and finishes both a cup of water, and a small bowl of chicken broth with some vegetables mixed in...and a teaspoon of rather disgusting medicine, before giving up and refusing anything else for the remainder of the morning and early afternoon.
Fevers combined with epilepsy can be a confusing, and potentially dangerous situation. Even a low grade fever makes Anna just a bit...out of it. Lethargic, temporarily regressed, irritable, all kinds of less than ideal things. Add sleep deprivation, allergies, and nightmares the previous night into the mix for an even less than ideal situation. Having finished her soup, Anna pushes it out of the way and replaces its spot with her head laying on her arms. “Still sleepy?” I ask. “No.” Anna says softly, the only real word I’ve heard out of her all day. “Your head hurt?” I get a slight head shake in return “tired.” As I have since learned very well, there is a clear and distinct difference between being “sleepy” and being “tired” while similar, they can be vastly different. “Do you want to go lay down again?” Anna pushes herself upright again “Shower first.” That sounds like a good idea, they tend to make her a bit more alert, and in general are rather helpful when fevers and the like make you rather sore.
Slowly and with a few near falls Anna walks back upstairs by herself and takes a brief lukewarm shower. She looks a bit better, but still isn’t acting quite normally yet “You….need a nap!” I say jokingly sitting on the edge of the bed which gets a small laugh out of Anna. “But I didn’t say you sounded like a pie with no filling!” Anna retorts. A full sentence, and a coherent one too! That’s an improvement for sure. “I know, but still, you should rest. You look like you need it.” Anna gives me a look “what are you saying I look like then?” I smile slightly “Someone with a fever that needs to break before said someone has a seizure.” Anna makes a small noise “true.” She says before laying back and grabbing her stuffed bunny to cuddle “I’ll be downstairs if you need me...don’t build a pillowfort this time instead of resting.” Anna makes a face in response “fineee” she sighs and tosses her bunny up in the air before catching it “you’re no fun.” She mutters. “Only because you have a fever.” Anna huffs and rolls over pulling the covers over her head. “I’ll come back up to check on you in an hour.” I say getting up, Anna gives me a thumbs up sticking her arm out from under the covers, and I shut the door as I go downstairs.
I find Anna fast asleep when I return, though drenched in a pool of sweat, and upon checking her temperature again, thankfully the fever has broken. I let her sleep for awhile, taking the time to read a bit of one of the books laying on the desk in the “to be read” pile, until Anna wakes up on her own. Anna rolls on to her back and sits up with a slightly disgusted noise, wiping the film of sweat off her arms. “Feeling better?” I inquire, and Anna looks over at me before nodding. “Except now I’m really in need of a shower...yuck.” I shrug, putting the book down “We needed to change these sheets anyways. You go shower, I’ll do that.” Anna throws the covers back and climbs out of bed “Sounds like a plan.” Anna grabs a set of clothes and heads off to take a shower, looking much more steady on her feet than a few hours ago, and leaving me to change the sheets in the meantime.
“Sorry for being whiny.” Anna apologizes over dinner. “No need to say sorry, if I had a fever in the middle of allergy season and was already sleep deprived I’d be whiny too. I’m glad you’re feeling better.” Anna smiles in reply. “I guess we learned the power of a nap then?” She asks-
“Yes we did.”
“Yes we did indeed…”
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