The Plague
So, after I posted that previous post about colds and flus and whatnot, I can tell you that . . . I was wrong, we all got whatever the hell Chris had.
Was it the flu or a cold? If it's a cold, it's the worst one I've ever had . . . EVER. Fevers, chills, body aches, the worst congestion that no med is coming close to successfully dominating. To boot, my coughs are so massive that I've lost my breakfast . . . TWICE. Nights are the worst, we're sleep-deprived, and . . . and . . .
WHINE.
In short, we've been in survival mode. We've been living on canned chicken noodle soup, except for last night when we were super bold and Chris picked up oodles of wonton soup from the local Chinese take-out place. Don't worry. We're feeding the children real food.
The girls have fared better. Lorelei is totally fine now (we're blaming HER as the original infector), and despite a painful double ear infection, Charlotte is on the mend and at school today. I took her to the doctor on New Year's Eve, and the pediatrician opted to treat her ear infection with antibiotics (instead of the wait-and-see approach used with Lorelei), because she was still in the midst of the virus and, well, waiting and seeing with Charlotte's ears has never been less than disastrous. On the plus side, thanks to the ear tubes (which have since come out, as expected), Charlotte has had neither an ear infection, nor antibiotics in 2.5 years!!! (I actually couldn't believe this when the pediatrician pointed it out, but I did the math . . . and it's true!). So, due to the long break, he put her on the less severe antibiotic (old fashioned amoxicillin), rather than the super strong one we had to use when Charlotte was a toddler. Back then, amoxicillin couldn't even touch her ear infections. Happily, the amoxicillin seems to be working very well. This is very surprising to me and is also a nice little lesson in the resiliency of young bodies. Also? Those ear tubes were the smartest parenting move we ever made.
Though it moved comparably faster through the girls, I am shocked at how slow-moving this virus is for Chris and me. And how severe it is. Chris, falling a couple days before me, is on the mend before me. So, our disease has unfortunately overlapped but not ENTIRELY. We're doing our best to handle what needs to be handled when a wave of not-feeling-shitty washes over one of us. We're hanging in there.
Speaking of survival mode, on New Year's Eve, I was feeling like CRAP, taking care of Charlotte, and school closed at 2:00, so Lorelei was on my plate as well as of about 1:48. (Chris was at work, suffering.) In the time it took me to clean up an inexplicable Emma pee mess (I had just taken her out!), my darling Lorelei elected to try to change her own poopy diaper.
On our bed.
Sure, she had brought a nice, clean new diaper to help with the job, but lord have mercy, my beautiful duvet was covered in toddler poop. And so was my toddler.
Well, Lorelei got an unscheduled bath, and I thanked my lucky stars that our duvet was machine washable. It said to wash it in cold, but . . . um, I pushed the rules on that one and washed it in HOT. I might've added some oxi-clean for good measure. And it was fine.
Miraculously, we're able to laugh about it (now). Little Miss Independence, that Lorelei. Geez.
So, we're taking it day by day. The girls are better, Chris is getting closer to being up to snuff, and I'm still bringing up the rear in misery, but hey, it can't last forever. (Day 7 now.)
And illness IS one of those things that makes you realize the frailty of the human body. I told Chris that the veil between utter angst and the ability to cope with daily ups and downs is as thin as the body. If you're sick, you just can't deal.
Soapbox moment: Which should remind all of us to tend more carefully to those who are chronically ill. The chronically ill who suffer day after day. It's a level of suckiness I just can't imagine. Maybe I'm just a wimp and So Sick of being sick, but . . . ugh. Nobody deserves to be always sick.
Was it the flu or a cold? If it's a cold, it's the worst one I've ever had . . . EVER. Fevers, chills, body aches, the worst congestion that no med is coming close to successfully dominating. To boot, my coughs are so massive that I've lost my breakfast . . . TWICE. Nights are the worst, we're sleep-deprived, and . . . and . . .
WHINE.
In short, we've been in survival mode. We've been living on canned chicken noodle soup, except for last night when we were super bold and Chris picked up oodles of wonton soup from the local Chinese take-out place. Don't worry. We're feeding the children real food.
The girls have fared better. Lorelei is totally fine now (we're blaming HER as the original infector), and despite a painful double ear infection, Charlotte is on the mend and at school today. I took her to the doctor on New Year's Eve, and the pediatrician opted to treat her ear infection with antibiotics (instead of the wait-and-see approach used with Lorelei), because she was still in the midst of the virus and, well, waiting and seeing with Charlotte's ears has never been less than disastrous. On the plus side, thanks to the ear tubes (which have since come out, as expected), Charlotte has had neither an ear infection, nor antibiotics in 2.5 years!!! (I actually couldn't believe this when the pediatrician pointed it out, but I did the math . . . and it's true!). So, due to the long break, he put her on the less severe antibiotic (old fashioned amoxicillin), rather than the super strong one we had to use when Charlotte was a toddler. Back then, amoxicillin couldn't even touch her ear infections. Happily, the amoxicillin seems to be working very well. This is very surprising to me and is also a nice little lesson in the resiliency of young bodies. Also? Those ear tubes were the smartest parenting move we ever made.
Though it moved comparably faster through the girls, I am shocked at how slow-moving this virus is for Chris and me. And how severe it is. Chris, falling a couple days before me, is on the mend before me. So, our disease has unfortunately overlapped but not ENTIRELY. We're doing our best to handle what needs to be handled when a wave of not-feeling-shitty washes over one of us. We're hanging in there.
Speaking of survival mode, on New Year's Eve, I was feeling like CRAP, taking care of Charlotte, and school closed at 2:00, so Lorelei was on my plate as well as of about 1:48. (Chris was at work, suffering.) In the time it took me to clean up an inexplicable Emma pee mess (I had just taken her out!), my darling Lorelei elected to try to change her own poopy diaper.
On our bed.
Sure, she had brought a nice, clean new diaper to help with the job, but lord have mercy, my beautiful duvet was covered in toddler poop. And so was my toddler.
Well, Lorelei got an unscheduled bath, and I thanked my lucky stars that our duvet was machine washable. It said to wash it in cold, but . . . um, I pushed the rules on that one and washed it in HOT. I might've added some oxi-clean for good measure. And it was fine.
Miraculously, we're able to laugh about it (now). Little Miss Independence, that Lorelei. Geez.
So, we're taking it day by day. The girls are better, Chris is getting closer to being up to snuff, and I'm still bringing up the rear in misery, but hey, it can't last forever. (Day 7 now.)
And illness IS one of those things that makes you realize the frailty of the human body. I told Chris that the veil between utter angst and the ability to cope with daily ups and downs is as thin as the body. If you're sick, you just can't deal.
Soapbox moment: Which should remind all of us to tend more carefully to those who are chronically ill. The chronically ill who suffer day after day. It's a level of suckiness I just can't imagine. Maybe I'm just a wimp and So Sick of being sick, but . . . ugh. Nobody deserves to be always sick.
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