D and I really feel like we have overcome something at our house! And by that I mean the illness that swept through our house and knocked us all to our knees. It all started a week ago Wednesday. L woke up from a nap with watery eyes, a little cough and a few sneezes. By Friday he was tugging at his ears and was very needy. With the weekend approaching and a vacation coming up, I wanted to get him to the doctor and get him well ASAP. The doctor confirmed that L had a double ear infection and a virus. He prescribed an antibiotic. L had a high temp of 104.5 that night. Super scary! I honestly did freak out. A temp that high is so dangerous for a child to have, but everything I've read and everything everyone's said is to take the child to the ER when the fever reaches 105 or if the fever doesn't respond to pain relievers. L's fever didn't respond to meds immediately so we gave him a good old fashioned luke warm bath (85-90 degree as rec'd by our pediatrician). I thought L would scream and cry while in the tub, but he enjoyed it. He played and laughed and his temp when down. Agh! Relief.....Later that night the same thing happened, we did a bath and L was not so keen on the bath this time. He cried, but eventually calmed down. His temp eventually went down. I woke up every three hours that night to check on him and give him meds. By Saturday afternoon his temp was gone and it stayed 98.6 until late morning on Sunday. His other symptoms had drastically improved, so we went ahead with our plans to take a road trip to an indoor water park. Our plans were to stay three nights and return home on Wednesday. The plans changed when L's condition changed. We headed home early on Tuesday.
Tuesday night I was sick. Sick, sick, sick. I had a temp of 102.7, the soarest throat I've ever had in my life and a cough. I had a case of the chills I could not shake. We didn't get home from our trip until 8pm. When we finally got home I couldn't help out with bed time or unpacking. All I could do was wrap myself in a blanket and sit on the couch and shiver. D was still feeling well, so he unloaded the car and put both boys to bed. He took good care of me by getting me meds and anything else I needed that night before we went to bed.
Wednesday morning I woke up with the afore mentioned sore throat, fever and chills, but also had a tightness in my chest and my sore throat extended into my chest. I told Dave it felt like I'd swallowed an exacto knife. It hurt to breathe, it hurt to cough, I couldn't talk. I whispered all day Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. I headed to the doctor on Wednesday. The strep tests came back negative, so the doctor said I had a virus. She said antibiotics won't touch a virus, so I'd have to ride it out. She recommended several over the counter meds, so I made a stop at the local pharmacy before heading home. Going to the doctor took every ounce of energy I had, so I came home and immediately took a nap.
D was the next to get sick, then N. All of us had about the same symptoms, but a few differences, too. D had body aches. I didn't have that. N had the terrible cough, but no sore throat. Thank goodness! I would not wish that sore throat on anyone! Thursday night was the hardest time of the entire week. D and I were both sicker than dogs. Neither of us had the energy to take care of ourselves, let alone the boys. But, as parents, ya just have to suck it up and do it. Somehow we both found it somewhere in us to take care of everyone. We alternated resting and caring for each other.
Thursday was N's worst night and my worst night. I had just gotten done crying about how sick I felt when D went to check on N and discovered his temp was 104.5. D gave N meds, but the temp wouldn't budge. We put a cool pack on N's head, changed him to lighter weight jammies and opened the window in his room to cool the air down, but none of that helped. So, we gave N the old fashioned luke warm bath at 11pm at night. We had to talk him into it by letting him watch the portable TV (I held it away from the water) while he soaked and D gave him a new toy semi afterwards. Fortunately the bath brought his temp down to 103.3 but it bounced back and forth between 103.3 and 104.4 for a while. We knew if N's temp didn't go down we'd have to take him to the ER. I was completely exhausted at this point. I lay in our bed trying to figure out how we were going to get N to the ER. Neither D or myself felt well enough to drive anywhere, so I figured one of us would have to ride with him in an ambulance. I decided since I was the sicker parent I'd go and N and I could both be patients. As an alternative I was trying to figure out how we could hire a nurse to take care of all four of us until one of us parents was well enough to take over. Forntuntaly D was able to get up every half hour that night as planned and he nursed N through the night. What a guy!!! I told D he could be a Navy Seal for staying up all night and for being sick on top of it. I think being up all night took a toll on D, but I got a fairly good night's rest, so I was able to take care of everyone that morning.
I still felt sick on Friday. My chest was getting tighter so I headed back to the doctor. I thought for sure pneumonia had settled in. The doctor took an xray and nothing was found! She said this virus must have settle in my throat and my chest and I'm having a hard time getting over it because of my asthma. She prescribed a new inhaler. I went from taking an inhaler once every few months to using two puffs every four hours. And I mean, when that four hours were up, I was ready to use it again! I haven't used my inhaler that much in years. But it sure has helped!
It is now Sunday night and D and I are finally feeling like we are getting back to normal. My mom came over and played with the boys today. Thanks again, Mom! That was a tremendous help. The boys were suuuuper excited to see her. D and I desperately needed to go to the grocery store, so we did that while she was here. Neither of us had the energy to go to the store alone, so we both went. I divided the list in half, gave one half to D and took one half myself and we met up along the way to save time and energy. It worked really well. It was nice to have both of us there to share the task of loading and unloading.
As we recover from being so sick I keep telling myself a few things. Being this sick makes me appreciate what are bodies are able to do on any given day on a daily basis when we are healthy. It makes me thankful that nobody in our family has a long term illness and it makes me grateful for the medical facilities we have right here in our town.
Now that I'm feeling well, I've gotta get this house back into shape! It looks like a natural disaster hit this place!
