I’m quite ready for this chapter to close.
Let’s run down the last ten days in the Philangelus household:
Friday: My Patient Husband comes home from work injured. It seems he was test driving a bike for commuting and managed to pitch forward over the handle bars. I wasn’t home when he called to find out if he should go to the ER, so he decided not to. Three inch gash in his hand, abrasion on opposite shoulder and pain in opposite elbow.
Monday: Kiddo#3 vomited in bed in the middle of the night. In the morning, Kiddo1 reports he has a fever. I keep him home from school. Kiddo#2 is fine.
Tuesday: Kiddo#3 looks listless and wan. Kiddo#1 still feverish. I keep them both home. Kiddo#2 is fine. Kiddo#4 appears sick but not very. I’m getting a sore throat. Patient Husband complains of elbow pain.
Wednesday: Kiddo#1 feels well enough to go to school! Hooray! Kiddo#3 still feels sick. The baby has been waking up all night and I assume a sore throat, same as I have. Midway through Wednsday, the school nurse calls: Kiddo#1 has an ear infection; please take him to the doctor. The doctor’s office works us in.
While we’re there, the doctor says we don’t need to medicate the ears (which I knew would happen) but tests K1 for strep and he’s positive. Three copays later she’s tested the other kids for strep too (even Kiddo#2, who suddenly developed a crushing throat pain at the doctor’s office when she found out everyone else was getting tested.)
Kiddo#2 was fine; Kiddo#3 had fluid in his ears; Kiddo#4 had an actual infection. I get home to find that Patient Husband, after finally going to the doctor, has a referral for an x-ra. He goes to the pharmacy to pick up an anti-inflammatory and is handed two more prescriptions, thinks to self, “Ah, she must have taken the kids to the doctor.”
Thursday: Patient Husband goes for his x-ray; Kiddo#3 returns to school. Kiddo#2 tells me of her terrible trial with a sore throat: she MUST have a cough drop. I send her to school with a cough drop. I never hear anything about the sore throat again. Baby is looking in bad shape still. Patient Husband calls from work and says surprise, the elbow is broken and he needs to see an orthopedist.
Friday: I wake up to Kiddo#1 saying, “My eyes are gunked shut.” I say, “You’re staying home.” Kiddo#3 needs to stay home again too. Baby is in bad shape. I have no time to be sick: there will be 19 people here for my daughter’s First Communion on Saturday. But I’m sick anyhow. Patient Husband calls: hairline fracture of the radius; no need for a cast. I call friends and famiily warning them not to come to The Plague House.
Current score:
2 ear infections
1 conjunctivitis
3 runny noses
3 sore throats
1 broken bone
1 headache
2 kids on antibiotics
2 antibiotics waiting for us at the pharmacy
The pharmacy had nothing that would make me stop caring about all this.
Saturday: we’re all reasonably healthy except for baby’s runny eyes and two kids with runny noses. But by evening, Kiddo#2 develops a rash wherever her First Communion dress had been touching her body. Commence oatmeal baths and benadryl.
Sunday: Baby has a fever. Kiddo#2 still has a rash. My throat hurts when I swallow. By evening, I’ve got a sinus headache and I’m coughing all the time. Baby is feverish and exhausted. Kiddo#2 has developed a fever and gone to bed early.
Monday: Help?
That is just overwhelming! You have my sympathy and prayers. What a week you’ve had. 🙁
You might be interested in boosting your immune system with Black Elderberry tea. It should be available at your local health food store. And no, it doesn’t taste very good, but it does work. Your children probably won’t like the tea, but it does come in syrup form which isn’t so bad tasting. We’ve been following this regimen for several months and we have avoided all the colds and flu that’s been going around.
I hope you all feel better soon.
I’m sorry, I don’t have any help, but you can have some {{{gentle hugs}}} for your whole family.
Internet hugs are the best kind right now because you don’t have to be within 25 feet of us.
I swear, if the media popped by my house, you’d never hear about swine flu again, but they’d be talking nonstop about angel flu. 😉
Lane, elderberry tea sounds good. I don’t care how it tastes. If it kept this at bay, I’d be pleased. Ironically, we didn’t have a down-like-dominos illness all winter. Only once the weather changed.
Sending ehugs and virtual chicken soup your way!
Hang in there.
Sorry, I don’t know how you do it when they’re all healthy! Hang in there.
Virtual hugs. Blueberry tea is also a good option.
It’s more common to get sick when the weather changes. It’s warm enough out for germs to survive and breed, but your immune system is still weak.
You poor thing!
Awww, I wish I lived closer — at least to help with things like the laundry and take out the garbage. 🙁 I caught so many bugs when younger that most actively avoid me nowadays. 😀
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