It all started more than a week ago—Saturday January 17th is when we first noticed that things were off. Rose’s eyes were all goopy and red. We thought it may be pink eye. By the following Tuesday, though, her eyes had cleared up for the most part and she seemed fine. Then Wednesday morning Jay woke up and barfed. He stayed home from school but was spunky and normal all day. Ok… Thursday morning, Jay woke up with red goopy eyes. “That’s it!” I thought, “off to the doctor we go.” So we went to see the new guy (since Dr. Weaver isn’t up and running yet). So much for never going to the Grandview Medical Center again! The new doctor didn’t introduce himself to us so I can’t remember his name. He stormed into the room and started poking Jay’s eyes and asking questions. He ended by “prescribing” Visine eye drops on a prescription paper. So we got some Visine, but it made Jay’s eyes hurt more so we gave it up.
My cuties between bouts of sickness, when Jay seemed to be getting better and before Rose went down.
Thursday afternoon, Jay got a fever. Friday I started feeling a telltale tickle in the back of my throat and sure enough, on Saturday I had clogged sinuses. I made a veritable vat of chicken noodle soup on Saturday night, and thank goodness I did. Sunday I woke up shaking with a fever, so Jay, Amber, and I stayed home from church and missed Jeff’s talk. (boo!) Sunday night my fever broke and my symptoms distilled into a dry cough and a stuffy head. Monday (yesterday) I decided to keep Jay home from school one more day to make sure he was all the way better. He was very close to his normal self all day, so I was fully intending to take him to school today. But then last night, Rose came down with a fever and I put both her and Jay to bed at 6:30pm. They fell asleep instantly and slept forEVER: Jay slept 13 hours and Rose slept 14 whole hours! That plus a raging sinus headache on my part convinced me to head back to the doctor for the second time in 5 days. So I called and made appointments with the nurse practitioner for all three of us this morning. She was very nice and helpful. $90 worth of copays later, Jay, Rose, and I learned that we all have sinus infections AND the flu. Joy.
Bonus: we got to wear these awesome masks at the doctor’s office. Mine kept funneling my breath upwards and fogging up my glasses. Rose would NOT keep hers on after the first 30 seconds. When Amber saw me with the mask on, her eyes got very big and she stared nervously until I took it off. Then she smiled.
The nice nurse prescribed us all amoxicillin for our sinuses and Tamiflu for the flu. I didn’t even know there was a medicine to treat the flu virus. I thought we were on our own with viruses. Our insurance paid for 100% of the amoxicillin but only about 20% of the Tamiflu medicine, so we only got the amoxicillin. It would have cost us $250 per person to get the flu medicine. Yeah RIGHT. It’s just a virus! We’ll fight it off the old fashioned way: with tissues and chicken noodle soup.
Watching a cartoon, in the calm before the storm. Amber was only interested as long as it took me to snap this picture.
I’ve been wondering something: is the flu like a hurricane—do they name the main flu strain each season? This year it must be Tami, since that’s the name of the medicine. Hurricane Katrina. Tami-flu. Ha, sorry. With this raging sinus headache, I have to look for humor where I can find it.
Sad.
And…icing on the worst cake ever…Jeff came home from school early today with the beginnings of the flu. Amber is the only one of us who is unscathed. (I am SO paranoid about her health now!) How can I breastfeed a baby without coughing on her or kissing her or touching her face or transferring every germ I own? I can only hope that she’s keeping this sickness at bay with all the antibodies in my supermilk. Possibly one of my biggest parental nightmares involves a very sick baby, so I picked up an extra bottle of hand sanitizer while we were getting our prescriptions today, as if that will solve all the problems. The nurse said it would be safest to wear my mask all the time, but… yeah right. Amber is scared of me when I wear that thing, and it’s really uncomfy.
Sunday night, Rose fell asleep sitting up at 6pm. She slept the whole time Jeff was taking out her hairdo and carrying her to bed, only waking up long enough to say “Daddy, I’m too tired. Bunny.”
Jeff didn’t know which clothes fit Amber when he was helping out on Sunday, ha ha ha.
I suppose I should be grateful that this is the first time we’ve had such a long drawn out sick-time in our family. It hasn’t seemed as horrible as I always imagined the flu. I always associated the word flu with throwing up, but officially influenza is not a barfy sickness. I felt rather ignorant when I discovered that nugget of information! I’m always inclined to think that barfing illnesses are way worse than paltry respiratory issues, but then again I did just spend 9 months drowning in nausea. I was joking this morning that no sickness is going to phase me after that awful pregordeal! I have been so low and dehydrated with uncontrollable barfing that a “mere” fever, cough, and sinus infection seem mild to me. Watching my sweet family go through it is where the true flu-agony comes in for me.
And now, to end on a happy note,
Here’s hoping she stays smiley and healthy!
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