Illness

The past couple of weeks have been crazy around here. Ted competed in his last cross country meet and placed 7th out of 15. He beat his time by 2 minutes, and this was the longest race, so he did awesome. Robbie played his last football game for the season, the team finished in 4th, out of 5 teams. Ted ran in the rain, and Robbie played on a cold windy day. We had other things going on that week also, it felt like we were burning a candle at both ends. I was the first one to get sick, I thought maybe I had overdone it while working in the yard. I was very achy, and very tired. When I woke up the next morning I knew I was sick, my head was killing me. I tried to rest most of the day, but I had errands to do, and things to get done around the house. I shouldn't have pushed myself so hard, it only made things worse. When the kids got dropped off from school, I was on the couch with a fever, chills, body aches, and no energy. Thank goodness my father-in-law stopped by, he stayed and looked after the kids while I rested. Soon after, the kids started dropping like flies! Ted was the first, his complaint was a sore throat. I thought it was sore because of all the coughing he had been doing. He wound up going to the doctor and was diagnosed with strep throat. Helen got sick very soon after Ted, she had a fever and vomited once before bed. She also had a cough, I thought the cough medicine I had given her might have caused her to get sick, because she didn't get sick again. I got sick on Sunday evening, Ted and Helen Monday night. Tuesday morning I asked everyone how they felt, the kids that were well anyway. Ted and Helen still had fevers so they couldn't go to school. I sent, Grace, Katie and Robbie to school that morning, only to have the school secretary call me about an hour after school started, "Come and pick up Robbie, he doesn't feel well, he's warm, and he doesn't look good." Robbie had body aches, cough, and a fever. I had Ted laying on one couch, Robbie on another, and Helen on the other, with Noah laying across the big chair. I decided to take his temperature, sure enough...he was sick too. Katie and Grace made it the whole day at school, Katie started to complain that evening. Come Wednesday morning, I had one child in school, Grace. I called everyone in sick to school, Greek school, and religion class, we weren't going anywhere. Fevers were starting to break, I was starting to feel good myself, finally a light at the end of the tunnel. Thursday rolls around, Helen is back at school, she had been fever free for 24 hours, she was the only one. Robbie was starting to feel much better and was on his way to the 24 hour rule. I got a call from the school secretary, Grace wasn't feeling well and wanted to come home. She had a low grade fever, and had the sniffles. She didn't seem as sick as the others had been, she must have picked up another bug. Ted had been on his antibiotic and was fever free for 24 hours, he was going back to school on Friday. Robbie too had made it 24 hours without a fever, along with Katie and Noah. Everyone was able to go back to school on Friday, I even sent Grace because she said she felt fine. I helped hang art work at the school for our Fall Frolic party coming up on the 30th. I felt terrible, I had caught the cold that Grace had. I was sneezing, my eyes were watering, I was miserable. I picked up Noah from preschool and headed home to rest until the kids were done at school. I received a phone call from Grace's teacher, she isn't feeling very well, come and get her. Then Grace says in the background, "No, I don't want to go home." The teacher says, okay, and tells me she will call if things change. Well, of course she called, Grace was sick, so I went and picked her up. I got to rest for a very short time and then it was time to pick everyone up. I was being blown away by the wind when I picked up Helen, I have to get out of the car and meet her and her teacher. I was miserable waiting in the stuffy car for the other kids to come out of school. My eyes were so hot, they needed to close for awhile. As soon as we got home, I went and laid down and closed my eyes. That was the best thing I could have done. I had been so busy taking care of everyone else, I let myself fall to the wayside...not good! After a couple of hours, I felt a little better, so I checked on everyone and got started with dinner. I was able to get a full night's sleep on Friday, nobody got up during the night needing anything. Saturday I felt much better, I still had the eye issue, but it was doing much better. All the kids were doing better too, they all had coughs, but nothing else. Come Sunday, yesterday, Grace was not feeling well, she looked like I did with the cold. I told her she wasn't going to school today, she said, "Wait, do I have anything going on today?" She was busted...she should have never gone to school on Friday, she went because they were having movie day. The teacher brought in a movie and they had treats while watching it. She made it through getting the treats passed out, and that's when the teacher called. I know this because she brought all her treats home with her! About a half hour after school started my phone rings, it's the school secretary, Katie isn't feeling well. I question this one, she had no complaints this morning, and she was fine all week-end. I brought her home, she is in her pj's and is laying on the big chair, while Grace is on the couch. Both are fever free, let's hope it stays that way for tomorrow. Sometimes Katie cries wolf, I think today is one of those days. The thing about crying wolf these days with the H1N1, the school doesn't care, they'll send her home, they don't want anyone there who may pass it along. It's been rough, but thank goodness, they could have been a lot sicker than what they were. I heard there is a lot going around out there, I think we had it all under this roof! "Wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands!" That's about all I've been saying lately!!!

Until next time-
Take Care,
Sue