Sorry, We've Been Sick

That's actually an understatement for what it is that we have been. As a matter of fact, I'm hoping that because we have been continuously sick since just before Christmas, we will have had a little bit of everything and can consider it out of our systems for the rest of the winter...hmmm, ya I know, probably not.

In any case, here is our story...

The week of Christmas up through the week of New Years the three youngest kiddos had croup. It wasn't as bad as it can usually get because we caught it early enough on Caleb that when Elijah and Sarah started with the symptoms we began the same treatment. The other kids had the same virus but other than high fevers, runny noses and vomiting once for both Joshua and Rebekah didn't end up with the same croupy cough.

I had hoped that 2012 would start off a bit healthier...hahaahahahha, not really sure why I thought that because the second round of illnesses began with Sarah who developed conjunctivitis on the evening of my last post...the 4th. I began the eye drops on Thursday afternoon, just in time for Joshua to also come down with it. (Side note: Joshua is by far the worst child to get sick with anything! With all of his sensory issues...oy!) I had hoped that I would be able to keep it contained to those two, but then Elijah came down with it on Friday night.

Saturday was a day that we would love to forget as nothing really went well that day. (There will be another post later regarding why this really was a day better forgotten) Even though we had a late start to breakfast, (not because we slept in or anything crazy like that) I wanted to get the kids out of the house because of the nice weather and I figured I could run the zillion errands that needed to be run at the same time. As Mike backed the van out of the driveway, Caleb (who still had a cough from the croup) decided to throw up after coughing and crying all at the same time. Mike pulled the van back in and we dragged Caleb inside to clean him up, shower him, put new clothes on him and get him back out to the van. We agreed that it was most likely due to coughing and crying at the same time and thought nothing of it. He ended up throwing up for the next 24 hours!

At that point, I figured I was doomed and started treating my eyes for conjunctivitis as they were getting itchy and slightly goopy anyway. Then on Monday night, after recovering from a stomach bug, Caleb started with conjunctivitis and Sarah took a turn for the worst. I brought her to the doctors on Tuesday to check for ear infections, but she was clear. The doctor switched her eye ointment to eye drops and we started another seven days of treatment for her. (For those of you who have never dealt with or don't remember the dosing for this is 2 drops per eye 4x a day...per kid!!!) Within 24 hours her eyes began clearing up and Mike and I thought that maybe we were getting to the other side of it.

Oh no, we weren't. Caleb woke up on Thursday morning with enlarged glands down the right side of his neck. He had complained about his ear a little on Tuesday night, but then didn't say anything on Wednesday. Whenever the kids get really congested I will begin putting garlic oil drops in their ears to prevent any kind of inflammation. So, after talking to the doctor I began some homeopathic treatments for him knowing that if he didn't improve by morning, I would have to bring him in to be checked. Well, Elijah decided to wake up at 4am on Friday by throwing up in our bed...sigh...sooo, between Caleb's still enlarged glands and Elijah vomiting every 45 minutes I found myself back at the doctors. This time the diagnosis was; Caleb had a severe double ear infection along with conjunctivitis, and Elijah also had a severe double ear infection with conjunctivitis, but also had bronchitis and some sort of stomach bug. Upon arriving home from the doctors, I discovered that Rebekah had also developed conjunctivitis.

That brings us to today. It took most of the day for Elijah to keep anything down but by the end of today he had eaten some toast, a banana and some ginger tea and was playing with Sarah. I'll take that as progress toward feeling better. As for the rest of us, we are on the mend. I'm praying that the stomach bug will stay away from the rest of the kids. Only time will tell. For now we will continue doing eye drops, ear drops, antibiotics and ginger tea for everyone.