You Won't Believe This

But since it's all I have to report, I'll tell you anyway.

We got the killer flu AGAIN. For the SECOND TIME this winter.

Slipshod came home from work with a fever the Thursday before last. He suffered the symptoms alone on Friday and Saturday and then Sunday, while the girls and I were out at my sister's celebrating her husband's birthday, after we'd been there for an hour and a half or so Sweet Pea suddenly had a runny nose, and her eyes went half-mast, and she had zero energy, and she was shivering cold despite the fact that she was wearing her fleece jacket and snuggling under a thick blanket with my sister. And her forehead was boiling hot. By the time I got her home her temperature was 103. An hour or two later she vomited rather violently. She vomited once more at bedtime and that was thankfully the end of that particular symptom, and none of the rest of us threw up.

The next day The Bug and I had fevers as well. Slipshod's fever continued to recede and return, recede and return.

Thursday night Slipshod said his chest felt worse and he might call the doctor on Friday, but when Friday rolled around he said he felt almost all better. He appears to continue to improve.

I can't remember now when my worst day was, but Thursday and Friday of this week I felt almost all better except for the lingering cough. Today, though, there were a couple hours in the afternoon during which I could not stand up without feeling very weak and dizzy. Dinner helped tremendously with that, though, so I'm wondering if I just haven't been eating and drinking enough to deal with The Bug's dramatically increased nursing demand.

The Bug had two horrible nights of sleep - I can't remember which nights now - so we took her to the doctor and she has an ear infection in her left ear, which we are currently treating with antibiotics. Yesterday she spent the entire day (even during my shower) in my arms with her head laid against my chest, feeling completely miserable. Last night, thankfully, she SLEPT, and today she was so much happier and much more independent.

But I am worried about the fevers. I think that mine and Slipshod's are gone, though we haven't really checked for a few days. But as recently as yesterday I was giving both girls Ibuprofen to lower their fevers. Then today at lunchtime Sweet Pea's temperature was yet again close to 100. She has had fevers off and on for SEVEN DAYS, and her cough is painful to listen to - I can only imagine how bad it feels - and last night the cough medicine which usually does a really good job of silencing the cough, at least during the night, seemed not to help at all. Tonight I forgot to give her the medicine and have not been able to wake her up to give it to her, even though several times after coughing jags in her sleep I have heard her cry a little bit and call out for me. Oh - and did I mention, Sweet Pea's appetite has been almost zero - for the entire week.

Tonight I have been reading online and in our child care books about flus and fevers, and what I'm reading says that Sweet Pea having a fever for this many days is not a good thing and that I could have taken her to the doctor three days ago to ask about that. Until yesterday I felt certain that Sweet Pea would be all better before the weekend or at least by Monday in time to go back to school (she missed all of last week, dammit). Now I am wondering if she will still have a fever on Monday. If so, I will obviously be taking her to the doctor as early as they can see her. I'm starting to worry that she may have pneumonia at this point.

Once again our house is a shambles inside and we are not eating particularly fresh food. Slipshod did a grocery run a few days ago which helped tremendously but I sent him with a list of things we desperately needed, not a thought-out list of things that would allow us to make yummy meals and would last us for a while. Wish us luck this coming week. I never expected to have to deal with this flu again this winter but since we did I am a bit scared about the possibility of more horrible illness before it really gets warm enough outside for people to be less cooped up with each other and quit spreading quite so many super-nasty viruses.