I've been playing nursemaid all week to my two boys.
It's been loads of fun. (If you are eating, feeling nauseous, or have absolutely no desire to read about illness of any kind, do not go any further! You have been warned.)
Last Friday, Garrett started running a fever of 102, but he was still acting like his crazy normal self, so I didn't worry. The fever went away after 12 hours or so and then the coughing started, when he starts coughing he doesn't stop. I don't see how he doesn't just cough that little head right off the top of his body. So doping then ensued. I started with his inhaler, didn't help, gave him a dose of Prednisone that we've kept back for times such as this. Didn't work. Vicks on the chest and the kind that plugs into the wall, just stunk everything up but the cough was ongoing. Triaminic was hauled out and it helped a little to the point where he atleast got several hours of sleep in a row uninterrupted at night. Along with the cough he also broke out into a rash and then on Sunday the Big D decided to hop along for the ride. (D as in diarrhea.) So Monday morning Garrett and I headed off to the doctor's office. When you have this many different things going on, it's generally a good idea to call in the pros, especially when everyone is so sleep deprived. Now, as Garrett and I were on the road to the doctor, Keith was beating a path from the bed to the bathroom. The only thing I will add to that statement is I am glad that Keith got the vomiting portion of this virus and Garrett did not. He atleast knows how to aim for the toilet.
We left the doctor's office having been informed that Garrett had a highly contagious virus and the doctor pretty much guaranteed that we would catch it, he also covered his own mouth anytime Garrett coughed or sneezed, he's never done that in the almost 3 years of seeing him as a pediatrician, so that should tell you a little something about this virus. The only thing he could give us to help out was a prescription for Prednisone. I couldn't tell him that we had already tried some and it didn't help because obviously no doctor wants to hear that your stashing prescription meds and using them while not under the orders of a doctor.
(Garrett gets croup very easily and regularly, we spent several hours in the ER a few months ago because he couldn't breathe, Prednisone is something they give him when this happens, hence the reason for us saving every bit of it that we can. We're hedging our bets that the croup will make it to our household again and we would like to spare ourselves from another trip to the ER. Just wanted to clarify for those who might feel they needed to preach at me about this.)
I went ahead and filled the prescription and gave it a shot for a couple of days but I think the cough actually got worse. During that time, Keith was still at home being sicker than he "ever has been in my entire life. And thanks a lot Garrett for bringing this stuff home to me." I told Keith that maybe he should have grown up with a bigger family, he might have some immunities built up to bugs like this. Whereas growing up in a family of 5 kids like I did, you pretty much have caught everything that is out there, unless you're my sister Grace who never gets sick, ever, but then she pays for it by having morning sickness all 9 months of her pregnancies, so I guess it's a balance. :) So far I haven't caught this bug yet, I'm in hopes that my bragging about being immune doesn't come back to bite me next week. So for the past several days I have scrounged up food for 2 sickies, changed disgusting diapers many more times a day than you would even think possible, tried to keep myself a little sterilized though that's hard to do when Garrett is constantly saying "gimme a miss (kiss)" and planting a nice, wet kiss right on my mouth before I have a chance to turn away or stop him. I think he wants me to get sick. I've also had the fun job of keeping Garrett away from Keith. He just didn't understand why Keith stayed in our bedroom. I finally told him that "Daddy is broken" and I think he kinda got the picture. You couldn't have told by looking at the two of them that they had the same virus. Garrett was running around and playing, other than diaper changing times which meant screams that could be heard the next county over. While Keith was in bed dying.
I was told the other night that I am not a good nurse. Apparently I don't provide water as frequently as the patients would prefer. Because you know, I want my family to experience dehydration and a necessary trip to the hospital for an IV. But the fact that soup and crackers were provided along with any medicines that I could find to help ease the suffering, those were not enough without more water. (Even though I provided water when it was requested, I just didn't follow up with refills often enough.) So I clearly need to keep my day job. But unfortunately my day job is being a stay at home mom, which is really a part-time nurse so I guess I'm not good at my day job either. Does anybody have any good recommendations for where I could go work for free?
PS. We're still not 100% healthy (well, I am, but I don't want to brag), Keith went back to work after spending a couple of days at home though he probably should have stayed home for a few more. I hope all his coworkers have better wives than he does because they'd better start brushing up on their nursing skills.
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