Germies!

Well, the germies are rampant in our house. It all started Thanksgiving weekend when we passed around a stomach bug through almost my entire family (immediate and extended).

Then at Christmas time it started all over with cold related illnesses. First Justine got an ear infection. The antibiotics she got didn't do anything for it and so she had it for an extended period of time but added to it tonsilitis and bronchitis. After an ER visit, 2 doc visits, and a combination of 3 prescription meds and 3 over the counter meds plus vaseline in her nose for nose bleeds she is finally back to normal. You know it's bad when she reminds you that she needs Mucinex (yes, requested by name!).

Then last Tuesday Ethan started coughing with a low grade fever. I had him to the doc on Wednesday hoping to ward off anything like Justine had. Unfortunately, for a baby his age there just isn't anything you can do. I was just told to suction him and that's it. By Saturday he woke up with a high fever (101.4). Anything over 100.5 for a baby his age is potentially dangerous and seeing a doc is needed. So when I saw 101.4 it worried me. I called the doc right away. She said to watch him and take his temp again after his nap. When I took it again it was 100 so we didn't have to go in. But later on it was up to 101.9 and in the doc's words, "he earned himself a trip to the ER". Luckily we were able to go to the Referral Care Center at Children's instead of the ER. It's a step down from the ER and because we were referred there was no waiting. Good thing, because I saw the number of people in the ER waiting room and we would have been there all night!!! He was given tylenol right away to get his temp down (thank goodness). They weighed him (almost a 13 pounder by the way), checked his O2 levels, watched his breathing, listened to his lungs, then for the RSV test. Yikes! They took a VERY long q-tip and pushed it through his nose and I suppose into his throat. Boy Ethan was mad about that! Then when it came time to suction he was even madder! That nurse gave him a GOOD suction; both his nose and throat. He was so mad that after he finally calmed his breathing down he literally passed out. Which I thought was not so bad considering his next stop was a walk down to the ER to have a chest x-ray. He woke up just before his x-ray but did great during that. The crazy thing was that his x-ray was done by Waylan's cousin! I didn't even know she worked at Children's. That ended the poking and testing for him and we just waited after that for the test results. The chest x-ray showed no pnemonia and the quick test for RSV was negative. But on my home from Awana last night the doc called to say he does in fact have RSV. His fever has been gone since that first dose of tylenol but we are having to suction him often.

Now for me. I've been kind of fighting cold symptoms off and on. Saturday I woke up and couldn't breathe but felt fine otherwise. I took medicine before I went to bed and woke up Sunday about the same. I planned on taking Justine to church Sunday and leaving Ethan with Waylan but Waylan came home from work tired and since I was fighting a cold anyway we all stayed home. But I did go to Awana Sunday night. It was the first day back and I didn't want to miss it. When I got home I started feeling like I had a sunburn. Still couldn't breathe and thought I should take my temperature. Sure enough I had a fever. I decided to stay home from work on Monday and slept until 3pm! Boy did I need it. I felt it was best to get rest and try to fight off these germies than work through it and prolong it. We'll see if my day of rest does any good.