Life's Laundry: I Spoke Too Soon (and other long stories made short)

Goodness, I am glad we are finally back home.

I could just leave this post at that and it would be the best summation I've ever done. It also would be short and concise (which AC likes :) but it would leave a few details out that might be important to reveal the irony of my previous post.

At last post - things were cooking along fine and there hadn't been any blood :)

Last Thursday afternoon J said he didn't feel well. He felt a little warm but I didn't worry because every time that he goes to my sister's house he spikes a low grade fever. I've come to expect this and I don't worry. There's just something there that his body has to fight and a fever is the way that it fights it.

By 11 pm, his temp was 103 which is worry range for me. I gave him some children's ibuprophen, it responded, and he went off to sleep. At 3 am when Baby K woke up to nurse, her temp was just as high. A little while after she nursed it went back down so I didn't wake up and go hunting for the medicine.

Friday morning, their fevers were low grade and they seemed fine. My mom wasn't feeling well but suggested that I go on and go to my hair appointment and do my product deliveries. She said that I could check on them during the day and that if anything changed, she would call me. I checked every other hour and they were just taking it easy but did not appear to be any worse. My mom had gone to the Dr while my dad watched the kids for 30 minutes. Her Dr had told her that she would be glad to see my kids that afternoon if necessary and to call if we wanted to come.

When I called at 3pm on my way back to her house, she said that their fevers had climbed and that they were acting "more sick" (whatever that means). I decided to take them in. I didn't want to be in an out-of-town-place on a weekend with no medical care options except the ER and two sick kids. That's not the ingredients for success. We headed for the family practice that my mom goes to.

Boy! Am I glad I did.

By the time I arrived at my mom's house, J was so sick that he couldn't walk. I carried him to the van and into the Dr's office (and I think I've reinjured my arm that I hurt painting a few weeks ago). My mom carried Baby K. He just layed there in the couch without moving except to rapid breathe in efforts to cool his burning up body.

When the nurse checked his temp and told me that it was 105.1F, I felt the panic button go off in my chest. Baby K was close to that at 103.8F and they had just had ibrprophen a few hours ago (the dosage is every 8 hours). I've never seen a medical staff scramble as fast as that staff, God Bless them. They rallied and assessed and discussed and both Drs in the practice were in the room with us helping. The streph swab was negative so they didn't have streph throat, their ears were clear but their sinuses and throats were raw meat. Their chest were clear but their breathing was labored due to the high fevers. Both my kids took the medicine that they administered in the office and we opted to go ahead and give J a shot of antibiotic to jump start the treatment. They gave him a whole gram of Rocephin (which is a crap load of antibiotic) and he did not like getting that shot. I felt so bad for him because that stuff burns like the devil going in but he was so sick that he just layed there and cried.

Lord! It was rough to have to handle that and not be able to make it better. He was really sick. I don't think the realization of how sick he was really took ahold of me till later that evening when I had a chance to sit still and think about the day's events. I'm like that (you know), hold together well until its all over and then break down when I've had a chance to process it.

We started them on the meds and by Saturday mid afternoon, they were showing signs of improvement....but not before throwing up on me a few times (both of them) and sporting upset stomachs from the meds. I felt so sorry for them. Heck, I almost felt sorry for myself having to handle all that alone. My mom had to work Saturday, my dad was gone and my hubby didn't travel with me. I mostly changed poopy diapers, wiped faces with cool/clean washcloths, nursed Baby K to prevent dehydration and kept pushing liquids with J. I also did a lot of rocking and loving....and praying.

I didn't feel like they were able to travel on Saturday so I postponed the return trip to Sunday. I'd postpone it again if necessary. I couldn't travel 5 hours by myself with two kids that were that sick.

I left yesterday at 10am and finally arrived in our driveway at 5:30 yesterday evening. I was so happy to see that new house....and my hubby......

There was no fever yesterday at all for either of them. Last night they both ate some food for the first time since Friday morning. Their tummies are still a little upset from the meds but I'll start them on some probiotics today and that will help (I hope). Everyone slept last night. J was asking to go to school before he went to bed. I'll see how he is when he gets up in a little while.

There were 4 clients that I didn't get to visit and they understand that my sick children come first. I'll mail their items this week.

In other stories -

I love my new hair cut and color.
It was good to see an old friend for lunch on Thursday.
I love that I am able to offer such a quality product to women and that I have so many loyal clients.
I love it even more that these women are also my friends.
The fact that I can earn money while sharing is icing on the cake.
I'm pleased that I was able to find a pair of jeans one size smaller than last time and that these jeans were ON SALE.
What a stoke of luck that the sales lady had a coupon for an additional (significant) percentage off.
I was able to move a good bit of inventory (so I don't have to take inventory and/or do taxes on it)
I made it home safe despite the horrible weather that we traveled in.
My kids didn't vomit (or poop) on the trip home.
I got to spend a good bit of time with M while we were there - she came and stayed with us at my parent's house the whole time.
I didn't even mind it when I had to turn around and go back 10 miles after we left yesterday morning to take her the Biology CD that she left in my laptop, LOL.
My house was clean when I arrived home.
In spite of being sick, J used the potty 9 times while we were gone.

I've got goals for this week. I'll share those (and some other goodies) on my next post later today.

Comments

I don't know what happened with the time thing but I made this post before 5:30am this morning...and it didn't post until right before 9. What's up with that?

J did go to school but still has an upset stomach. He also stayed dry through the night and used the potty this morning without prompting from me or daddy.

Posted by: WashLady | December 05, 2005 at 09:02 AM