This year has been the worse for us in the sense of sickness. Prior to this year it was almost like clockwork. When the weather changed from Summer to Spring we got sick; after a long early winter and once we hit mid January we ALL get sick, and then of course once we went from cold to warm in the spring...the girls got sick again. This year has thrown me for a loop!
We bought a membership to a local pool this summer. We went swimming for an entire month and at the end of that month- we were sick the rest of the summer- ALL of us! Everyone has been sick off and on. One will get sick then all will be well for a week and then someone else will get sick. We've seemed to hit our peak right now and haven't been able to get a break.
Right before Thanksgiving I was sick, as well as a few of the girls with colds. Then a week before Christmas we got the stomach flu!! My poor husband was a saint! We were all sick at the same time except for him. He had the girls laying in a circle in the living room with blankets and pillows and a puke bucket beside their heads. I was in my bed also with a puke bucket! One bucket would get full, he would go wash it out and another would get full. It was continuous for over 14 hours!! He did nothing but wash out puke buckets!! He slept for two days after that !! lol
We were all well a few days before Christmas (I have no idea how long it lingers though) and seems like we ended up spreading it around a bit on Christmas Eve to family:/. We also had a visit after the New Year from my Brother in law and his family- again they also go the virus two weeks after we had all been well!! Of course they could have picked it up anywhere but you never know.
Then we were hit with strep, and cold viruses that we were told we can't do anything about but wait it out and let the whole family contract and get over. And then Nathan's back started acting up. In the last two weeks I've never seen him in as much pain before. He has been in such severe pain that his medication isn't working, he can't stand up, he is constantly having to alternate between hot and cold compresses and the pain has caused him to get sick to his stomach, and become dizzy. At first we couldn't understand what was going on with him getting dizzy and sick-we thought maybe it was a virus, and then we finally put together that it was happening every time he was in severe pain. So- we are again contemplating surgery and will be calling his pain management doc this afternoon.
Friday night Sweet-pea came down with a high fever of 103.5. I gave her a bath- ibuprophen and tylenol every few hours, the normal "get the fever down" routine. I decided to take her to Kidmed but when we got there they were closed! I went to another urgent care facility but they didn't take our insurance so I ended up back at home with hopes that we would make it through the night. She went to bed only to wake up again a few house later at 103.5 again. We went through the routine again and this time it went down to 102.5 and within an hour it was back to 103.5. We called the doc and they seemed to think she was okay; however, after watching her continue to have rapid breathing and congestive cough I was convinced she had pneumonia! We took her to the ER and that was her diagnosis! She was a little better today. Her fever was down, but still there and she was a cranky mess, but she was on the mend.
Somewhere between Saturday and Sunday Hobble-Bobble, Little Bear, Goobies and Pumpkin have all come down with some type of respiratory problem that has needed a nebulizer. When we tried using it, it wouldn't work!! We pulled out our back up and it still wasn't working!! So we called all over town trying to get new parts for it and NO ONE had parts that were accessible this weekend for them! Thank God that they weren't horribly severe!! Until tonight!!
Pumpkin got up at 3am gasping for air. She had severe croup and her chest was tight and heavy and hurt. We have dealt with her and croup since she was a baby and until the last two times she has had it, it hasn't been this bad. Tonight was the worse. I put her coat on her and stuck her head in the freezer like the doctors suggest. She sat there for a while and was still wheezing desperately!! Nathan and I started to make plans for who should take her to the ER sense our nebulizer wasn't working, and there was no way we could let it go. After an hour of giving her water and sitting her in the freezer, I decided to pray over the nebulizer. I plugged it in and it WORKED!! Now after three treatments she is still not sounding very good. I gave her some benadryl in hopes that it will help, but if not we may end up at the ER or Doctors office sometime again today anyways.
In the midst of all of this, I started my classes on Saturday! It has taken everything I have to not drop my classes this semester! All I want to do after they go to bed, is going to bed!! I just have to keep telling myself - it will be over before you know it!!! Until then- I'm going to continue pressing on because it will one day be worth all the sacrifice- right?
Oh and just to clairify- this is not a post of me complaining, but me just sharing what life is like with you. In the midst of our worse day- all of us puking in circles- I would not trade my life for any other! I have more love than I know what to do with at times! I am a very blessed person!
Oh girl that just stinks! I feel for you! :-( I didn't have 5 but I can remember how they just passed everything back and forth for those first 6-7 years...it was no fun! They even had their tonsils out at the same time. I can't imagine how sick we would have been with a houseful. If you need anything just give me a call! Even if it is just to vent! Hugs :-)
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