Just to remember…

So, most could care less about our sick times around here, but I’d like to remember the craziness of our illness prone family this year. It started back before Christmas. Abriella woke up in the middle of the night crying and saying that she had an ear infection. Yep, she diagnosed herself. So, I gave her tylenol and put her back to bed. In the morning, she woke up and told me that she had an ear infection in both ears. So, off to the doctor we went (she always tells me when she needs to go to the doctor). Indeed, she had a bilateral ear infection! Pretty impressed with her skills as a diagnostician! So, anyway, Amoxicillin for 10 days.

Colby has been periodically “off” with yucky, loose stools for a while. I think he has such a sensitive system. Or, maybe it is the fact that he drinks bath water all the time. That can’t be good! This leads to him having diaper rash a lot from the toxic poop, as we call it! Stephen told Colby the other day that he needed to learn to poop on the potty. HA! I told Stephen that he could feel free to potty train Colby, but it ain’t gonna be me at this time!

Colby also has had a snotty nose and cough for most of the winter. Even in the times when he doesn’t have a runny nose, he tends to sniff like he does. I think it’s habit now! HA!

Then, about 3 1/2 wks ago, Abriella woke up and said her mouth hurt and upon further questioning, it was determined that it was her throat that hurt because her mouth hurt “when she swallowed.” She didn’t want to go to the doctor, so she just laid around for a few days. Stephen had a sore throat earlier in the week, so we just figured it was the same thing. Well, after a couple of days of complaining of the mouth pain, she developed a sandpaper-feeling body rash. I decided then that what she had was possibly strep throat, as you can develop a scarlet fever rash with strep. She was feeling better though, so we decided to not go to the doctor as you don’t always have to have antibiotics with strep, and I wasn’t even sure it was strep!

Well, then, I got the sore throat. Now, I’m not one to go to the doctor that often, I admit. It pretty much was the worst sore throat I had ever had. I wanted to drool rather than swallow! I was thinking it might be strep as I didn’t have any kind of drainage to make my throat hurt from that. I had body aches for a day or so, and I could feel my lymph nodes swollen in my neck. BUT, still I opted against taking myself to the doctor. Who has time for the doctor with 2 kids?! Plus, I don’t even have a primary care doctor, so it just seemed a pain to figure out where to go. Excuses, I know.

So, finally after a week, the daughter woke up and said she needed to go to the doctor. She said her ears were infected and, upon questioning, her “mouth” still hurt. So, I guess she wasn’t better afterall! So, off to the doctor we went. Well, I got the parent-of-the-year award from the doctor! I basically told her the symptoms (the rash, etc) and told her that I thought she might have had strep throat (and, mentioned that I still had a terrible sore throat myself…). So, when she looked in her throat, she saw horribly enlarged tonsils, which I had seen earlier in the week, too. Her ears were fluid-filled (not infected, though). She sent off a rapid strep test…and, alas it came back positive. Bad mommy! So, the doc also thought she probably had a sinus infection as well. Oh, because I failed to tell you that during this week, the daughter had also developed a terribly stopped up nose and couldn’t breath at all through her nose, and she sounded so funny when she talked. So, 14 days of Amoxicillin for strep and sinus infection. Poor girl! Thankfully, she loves that pink stuff!

So, I figured I should try my hand at the walk-in clinic down the street, since I figured I probably had strep as well. My throat was still killing me a week later. I know, I know, I should’ve done this days before! Anyway, it was so easy! When we went in (me with both kids in tow), there was NOBODY in the waiting room. I think lunch must’ve just ended, as there wasn’t even a receptionist at the time. So, I signed in and proceeded to wait, while both kids were all over the waiting room. Abriella had to go potty, so we left the waiting room and took care of that. I hated to do that as there was nobody to tell that I would be right back. Anyway, came back and the receptionist was back and she got me all checked in. Got called back and the doc said my pharynx was quite red, my symptoms matched up with strep, I actually had a low-grade fever that day as well, and since my daughter was positive for strep…he just gave me a script for Amoxicillin for 10 days. He didn’t even bother with the strep test. So, off to the pharmacy. ~sigh~ (Oh, and when we came back out through the waiting room, it was PACKED! Praise God for the timing!)

Anyway, that was a Friday. On Sunday morning, we woke up to a puke-filled crib of Colby’s! I mean, it was everywhere! GROSS! He was happy as could be, so we passed it off as the fact that maybe he had eaten too much broccoli the night before (he seriously ate a lot!) and that it didn’t agree with him. Well, we bathed him and went to church. Yes, you’re welcome everyone! 🙂 Well, he threw up again on Monday. He was fussy prior to that, but then seemed fine afterwards. So, what do you do at that point? No use going to the doctor, right? He wasn’t eating very well, but who does when they have a sour stomach?

Anyway, the daughter and I continued on our antibiotics. Tuesday night, the daughter woke up yelling…and, we quickly realized it was her pre-vomit yell. Yep, she has one now! Her daddy did that growing up, too. I always wondered what that would be like. She had started doing that in her recent throwing up endeavors, but this one topped it all. So, Stephen and I raced up the stairs, but the damage was already occurring. She was on her way to the bathroom (she’s actually pretty good about getting to the toilet to vomit), but it was all over her wall, the floor, door, and in the floor towards the bathroom, too. YUCK! So, we got her cleaned up and she sat in the playroom while we went to work on cleaning up all the vomit. Stephen and I have become quite good at this, actually. We have been using Kids-n-Pets for a year or so now, and it is amazing! You can find it at Wal-mart. Well worth it for us. No stains, no stink!

After we finished cleaning up, Stephen slowly started putting her back to bed, while I got all the laundry in the washing machine. He had a feeling there would be more.  Sure enough, she had another trip to the toilet. Stephen made sure she made it there in time. I decided to stay in the guest room for the rest of the night. She had one more vomiting episode for a total of 3 times that night. It was so sad as she said, “I don’t like throwing up all the time.” (Oh yea, I forgot she had another night of vomiting sometime after Christmas). So, we all lounged around AGAIN the next day.

Then, this past Sunday night, Colby woke up crying in the night. It was an “I need something” cry, so I went up to him and couldn’t see anything wrong (no fever, no vomit, clean diaper). So, rocked him a minute and put him back to bed. A few hours later, he woke up again. Went up to him with Tylenol in hand. He felt a little warm, so I decided Tylenol was great. Well, he started hesitating with the Tylenol and started crying. Well, just as he finished getting the Tylenol in, chunks came flying! Vomit all over me, him, and the floor! Arrgh! I called for reinforcements. Stephen came up and cleaned up the floor, while I tried to clean myself and Colby up. Got him back to bed and he was fine the next day except for poor appetite.

During this whole time, Stephen has gone from one minor thing to another. He just hasn’t been 100% for a few weeks now. It’s a sore throat, a cough, allergies, cold, etc. I think he’s working too hard! He still carries on, but I know he’s not completely well, yet.

Anyway, we sure are ready for Spring! It’s hard to see your kids feel bad! This has been a crazy few weeks for us this winter! I know we are completely blessed though. The things my kids have truly are so minor compared to what others deal with day in and day out. We are blessed to have medical care so accessible (even if we may be too stubborn to utilize it…) and to have medicines to help cure our ailments. Here’s praying we have a few healthy days/weeks coming to us!

On another completely unrelated topic, I’m happy to say that I’ve lost 15 1/2 pounds since getting home from Thanksgiving! How, you ask (or maybe you’re not interested at all!)? I did the old-fashioned diet—eat less, exercise more! I had gotten into the predicament I was in by eating more and exercising less! HA! So, I’m finally back down to the weight I was before I was pregnant with Colby! Guess it’s about time, since he’s rapidly approaching 2 yrs old! I feel so much better, too. I have more energy and …more clothes (I can finally fit back into some I had to put away a while back!).  🙂

Well, that’s the update for now. I’ll post some pictures later. We are about to head to LifeGroup, so no time to get the pictures on now.