Week in review

I would never have guessed that a week had gone by since my last post. I guess when we are healthy, there isn't a whole lot to blog about! But seriously, it was an uneventful week with both boys back at their respective schools and life going on as normal.

Last Friday evening, Ray and Connell finally got their seasonal flu shots and we ate at Perkin's to celebrate! Saturday and Sunday were fairly quiet with some errands (for me) and sports events on tv (for the guys).

Tomorrow we are driving up to Glenwood to have lunch with Ray's grandma and then at 4 pm we have Ray's cousin Jeff's wedding in Alexandria. It will be a marathon day with two changes of clothes for the boys -- a nice outfit for the wedding and then after the reception into pajamas so that they can sleep the entire way home and transfer into bed. The drive is about 2 1/2 hours one way.

The weather here was great (crisp/cool, yet sunny) the beginning of the week although the last few days have been rainy. We need the rain so I can't complain although it does give a glimpse of winter and the long afternoons. Connell is back from kindergarten by 11:15 each day and so it makes for a short morning and long afternoon.

On the mend

Connell went back to school on Thursday and did quite well according to his teacher. He did get a time-out and claimed that is was "so hard to remember all those rules being absent for a week" (yeah, right!), but I guess he made it without too much coughing and with a normal amount of energy. Today will be day #2 and then he gets the weekend to relax (has anyone ever seen my boys relax!?!?!)

No one else in the household has come down with the virus so we are very thankful for that. We have gotten better at washing hands and using sanitizer and so hopefully we can continue to be diligent over the winter.

Connell knows that it is coming -- since he is well again, he will need to get his seasonal flu shot this weekend. Liam and I got ours last week while Connell was sick and home with dad and so Ray will have to hold him down. Connell still is deathly afraid of shots and blood being drawn and so it is a chore to accompany him while either is occurring.

Liam loves preschool!

Liam just adores preschool (and we were VERY nervous about him starting given his stranger anxiety history, etc.) In fact, yesterday he said, "I just LOVE Ms. Jennifer!" (that's his teacher). She is a sweetie and we have known her for 3 years now. Ms. Lisa is the helper and we have known her even longer.

The class is quite unique -- small and all male. They have 4 different options for 3 yr old classes at our church and the Mon-Wed. morn option is the least popular. It worked best into our schedule and I don't regret him being in the class that he is. But it makes me feel even stronger now that I will enroll him in a larger daycare center (with a preschool program) next year when I go back to work so that he gets some exposure to lots of kids and some females before kindergarten!

This is a picture I took of the picture they brought home today of the whole class. I honestly don't know who is who, but there is a Jacob, James, John Henry, Joe, Henry, Charlie, Nick, Riddik and Liam in the photo -- and I bet you know which one is Liam!

Are you sick of hearing about illnesses yet? (no pun intended)

Well, we saw Connell's regular doctor this afternoon about the residual cough and he thought that perhaps this is a case of the secondary bacterial infections that they are seeing occur with the influenza A (H1N1). He couldn't be sure because Connell's temp has been down for almost 2 days (after 5 of being up). Since the cough really started in full force when the fever subsided, it sounds like the start of a second infection and so he prescribed Azithromycin to help with the clearing of the lungs and the cough. Connell will be out of school for several more days. He has already missed 4 days of school.

As you can see, the medical clinics require that the influenza patients wear masks during their entire stay. Connell wasn't happy about that.

I tried...

After not having a temp for >24 hours, very little night coughing and generally feeling much better (and no longer listening to mom and dad's orders to stay sitting or lying on the couch), I sent Connell to school today for the first time since last Wed. Well, within an hour I had a call from the nurse asking me to come back to pick him up because he simply was coughing way too much. She described his cough as "horrific" and I was shocked because it was a little strong hearing a nurse who seems to see all types of illnesses for a living call my son's cough "horrific!"

I'm at wit's end at this point because Connell doesn't listen to anything we say anymore (like drink this, take that, lie down, etc.) and so honestly he is never going to get better. It doesn't scare him to think that he might have to go to the hospital with pneumonia. Nothing. He still gags up vitamins we give him, refuses to drink things that we try to give him (warm water with lemon and honey, etc.) and won't even take many of the meds that we have tried. It's probably frustrating for him as well since he has never been this sick before in his 5 years of life, but we just can't understand why he can't follow what we ask of him. The only thing I can think of relates to the fact that some kids go through some strange changes the first month or two of kindergarten and perhaps the fact that this illness combined with the second week of kindergarten is playing into it.

H1N1

Well, Connell's flu held on throughout the weekend and so we knew that it fit all the criteria of H1N1 (absolutely textbook case down the line --- high fever for many days, sore throat, cough, runny nose, aches, chills, fatigue, etc.) There is no medicine for any of the flus -- regular or H1N1 as we found out doing research and talking to the nurse on the nurse line. In fact, since the seasonal flu hasn't started yet, all influenza A cases are being considered H1N1 (without testing specifically for it). After the fever hit 5 days, the nurse suggested taking him in simply to rule out strep and pneumonia, bronchitis, ear infection, etc. which is exactly what the trip to urgent care yesterday evening did for us. So we are happy to report that he only has H1N1 (influenza A) which actually is good news! It's persistent and caused him to miss many days of school, but fortunately in 99% of people like Connell -- it shouldn't cause anything serious. Even the urgent care doctor said that this has all been over-hyped which is good to know because I have been feeling it from people. So many common people have made me feel like the whole family should be quarantined which is not true! The doctor we saw actually said that all the schools and daycare centers have many cases of H1N1 and so it's everywhere already! And in retrospect, Liam didn't have it -- he only had a fever for a matter of hours and then that was it. He was acting very strange over the weekend so we were sure that it was coming back, but nothing ended up coming. So Liam is back to preschool today and feeling great as Ray and I are. Will keep you posted though...

Health Update

Connell woke this morning with a 101.2 temp (so comparable to yesterday's) and has been complaining of a sore throat and coughed a lot in the night. He is also sneezing. Sounds like a classic case of the flu. We are unsure how long he will be out of commission. We had hoped that by next week he could return to school, but we'll see how the weekend goes. Liam's fever never returned and he seems fine despite a minor cough, but we're watching everyone closely. I am so nervous that I will come down with something spending so much time around these "sickies". It's going to be a rough winter.