Ring in the new year

Well 2013 has had an interesting start. We rang in the new year with Rick’s dad. Well sort of.. you see he was sick and spent most of the night in bed but he did join us for fireworks. Steve and Stephanie were troopers too. Steve had his wisdom teeth taken out a few days before, and Stephanie had to take care of him and was jet lagged. They both were tired but were sweet enough to stay up with us anyway.  Stephanie even had me start the year upside down. It is suppose to be lucky, we’ll see if it works.

The next day Trevor ran a fever and wasn’t feeling very well. Wednesday night I had a dream that Trevor died in his sleep. The following day I was a little on edge and put Trevor on the couch to take a nap instead of his crib. He was sleeping when Rick came home. He sat down next to Trevor while I made the other 2 lunch. Rick yelled from the front room to run to him. I ran into the front room to watch Trevor twitching and having his eyes roll into his head. Rick calmly stated that he thought he was having a seizure. The convulsing subsided and Trevor proceeded to throw up. Rick promptly turned him over. When he finished his little body went limp and slightly purple. He wasn’t breathing very well. We threw everyone into the car and drove the 4 blocks to the hospital. I’m pretty sure the other 2 kids didn’t even have shoes. I then spent most of the day in the ER. They gave Trevor an IV, took a chest x-ray, gave him a breathing treatment, ran a blood panel, and swabbed him for strep and the flu. Honestly the hardest thing about it was I had left the diaper bag in the car and didn’t have anything to change or nurse Trevor. Rick had taken my bag home with Katie and Brady. All the tests came back negative and when his fever had broke they sent us home. Little Trevor had a febrile seizure. It is caused when a small child has a fever that spikes and they are unable to dispense the heat quickly enough. One in 20 kids have them. Out of that 1/3 only have one, 1/3 only have 2, and the last 1/3 have multiple seizures. We have to watch him until he is 5 years old. After that they are no longer a risk. The doctor said, “if he even LOOKS like he is getting a fever,” give him some medicine. It made me laugh but I think she was serious.

When I got home I felt truly loved. As I sat in the hospital, Rick and the Kids had cleaned the entire house. He even vacuumed. It was such a relief since shortly after I got home we hosted 4 missionaries for dinner. I decided I’d pick up little man’s prescription in the morning. He spent the night with us in our bed just to make sure he was ok and didn’t seize again.

The following day at the store I picked up the groceries and the Rx only to have Katie throw up just before we checked out. Not an easy thing to deal with when you are not at home or near a bathroom. Let’s just say that we own a new platter because of it. I was just glad I hadn’t taken her to school that morning.

I got her home and in bed. Brady had a runny nose and Trevor still wasn’t 100% but was acting better. By that night I was dead. Unable to move off the couch dead. It was like I caught the cold from Hell. The following day Rick joined me. So there we were on Sunday all 5 of us sick as can be unable to move or do anything. Luckily Rick started to feel better soon and was able to take care of the rest of us. By Monday I could function but had zero energy. The kids however were getting worse. That night Brady threw up at 3 in the morning. I called the pediatrician when I got up and all 3 kidos had an appointment. Luckily Rick was given the week off by his preceptor. I'm not sure I would have survived without him there. As I was checking the kids in, Rick was in the waiting room bathroom with Brady throwing up. They looked the kids over and said that Trevor and Katie looked fine but Brady might have a bug. They asked if they had had their flu shots. Of course. I am all for immunizations. In fact for whatever reason Brady had ended up with 2 flu shots this year. They said they wanted to run a flu test on all of them but since they had the vaccine it was unlikely they had it and that it was just a stomach bug.

A few minutes later they came in to say that Trevor’s test came back negative, Katie came back positive for type A flu (they thought she was fine), and Brady came back positive for type A and type B flu. Yep the kid with multiple vaccinations this year was the one to catch both strands. They were more like, ok so your family IS sick. It explained a lot about why Rick and I couldn’t move over the weekend. 

A few days later I was back at the office with Trevor throwing up. They said he looked fine and as long as he pees every 8 hours he’ll be fine. REALLY????? I just told you that he is throwing up, had watery diarrhea, and refuses to nurse and he is fine. Right, Thanks.

Honestly my kids may not look sick to you because they are still able to laugh and skip around. I know they are sick when they are no longer running at top speed 24/7. It is what happens when you have really active kids. 

So he was miserable and slightly dehydrated for a few days but he survived.

Everyone’s health recovered just in time for Rick to head to Philly for his PE Exam. He of course came home with sinus problems and a cough he thought was important to share with me. I am very grateful at this point for crazy TN snow days, weekends, and kind people that have taken good care of my family.

I am starting to feel better but it looks like Katie and Brady might be the next to be hit next. GRRR

Rick jokes that we might be better in time to move this summer. I guess we’ll see.

(Katie sick and cuddled in her bed)