That Uncultured Swine

Would you believe we still don't have all the sickness out of the house? Sunny is still sick, suffering from what the doctor believes is a secondary viral infection. She's still running a fever at night and she's still coughing. We get one more day for the fever to resolve itself before they start running bloodwork and other unpleasantries.

Okay, all that was true yesterday two days ago when I started this post, and you see how much I managed to get written before I got sucked away again. Her fever stayed down last night, so today yesterday, two and a half weeks after we started this whole mess, Sunny went back to school to join her sister and brother, Nemo went to the babysitter, and I cleaned up the disgusting disaster area otherwise known as my family room. The mess was so bad that I simply took a big rubbermaid tub, threw everything in it that wasn't laundry, trash, or a book, and told the big three that they have until tomorrow tonight to clean everything they wanted out of it, and whatever is left is going to charity or in the trash. It was foul. It feels so good to have that room, the main room in our house and where we all spend the most time, clean and clear.

I want to thank everyone for their well wishes, prayers, kind words and thoughts. Before the antibiotics took effect, Trout just laid on the couch and stared into the back of it, not having the energy to face forward and stare at the tv instead, and she loves her some tv. I had to sit next to her with a cup with a straw to get her to drink anything. She was so weak and grisly pale, like Ruth in Fried Green Tomatoes just before she died. The last time she scared me that bad she was nearly washed out to sea. My nerves could really do without all that, but I guess that's just one of those things about being a mom. If my kids didn't scare the crap out of me all the time something would be wrong. At any rate, after two doses of the antibiotic she woke up the next day yelling at Sunny, so I knew then she'd be okay. Augmentin rocks.

If you have the unfortunate luck to have any member of your family get H1N1, please, please make sure you monitor them for several days after you think they are all better. Our experience with Sunny has taught us this. She got sick first, coughing and running a moderate fever but not the scary 104 that Nemo hit or even the 103 that Little Man had. The fever lasted five days and broke on a Friday. It stayed down all weekend, so I sent her to school on Monday. By Wednesday she was running a fever again, and due to the experience with Trout I suspected pneumonia and took her in to the doctor on Thursday morning. The doctor confirmed it was either bronchitis or early pneumonia, commended me for bringing her in so quickly, and put her on antibiotics. Once again the fever broke on Friday so we sent her to school Monday. Monday night she started to run a fever AGAIN. So thinking that the antibiotics weren't appropriate and we needed a different one I took her back to the doctor and said WTF why can't we get rid of this stinking thing? The doctor said her lungs were clear and that she thought Sunny had a secondary virus, that her body/immune system were so weak from fighting off the H1N1 and the bronchitis/pneumonia that it has made her susceptible to everything else out there. It cleared in a couple of days, but if it hadn't they would have started running bloodwork etc. looking for something much worse.

Please, if you get this, err on the side of caution and keep your child home an extra day, if you can, to give their little bodies time to strengthen so they won't succumb to something else. They need that time. Sunny may be back at school now, but she's tired and doesn't have the energy she usually does. She even told her teacher that she was tired. So we'll be doing early bedtimes for another week, I think, til she starts feeling like herself again.

Somehow, in the midst of all this, I managed to not get sick. I was exhausted, profoundly, like first-trimester-of-pregnancy tired, but I never got a cough or sniffles or a fever or aches or anything. BigDaddyFish missed almost a week of work running fevers and coughing and aching. That actually ended up being a blessing in disguise, as he was home so I could run my unsick self to the store without having to drag several sick kids with me, so we were able to manage pretty well without having to expose anyone who might have come to help us out. We are still grateful for all of you who offered to bring us food and staples and leave them on our porch for us. We have the best friends in the world.

Here's hoping we got all our sick for the winter out of the way now.

Comments

[angi]

This sounds so much like what we've been dealing with too, but they never even tested us! But the coming & the going of fevers, the EXTREME tired...we got it! Yesterday I went to the store (first time in a week) and I left totally wiped out. I agree with keeping everyone home, Zander has only been to school 3-4 days the last two weeks - poor kid!

I am glad to hear you are finished & I pray that you are right about all of your sick (and mine!) being DONE....

[hokgardner]

I'm so glad you wrote this, and I hope parents who read it pay attention. I've had SO many people tell me H1N1 is no big deal and that they aren't even worried about it. Given how sick I was, I'd hate to see one of my kids go through it. And I had the same problem Trout did - I got better for 24 hours and then was hit with a secondary infection.

And if I lived near you, I would have so brought you food.

[ktjrdn]

I am so glad to hear things are finally looking up for you. I was worried

[Shelli]

I stumbled on your blog (fellow SVMoms contributor), and glad I did. My 6 yr old son was diagnosed with H1N1 last week... started getting better, and then (not 48 hours into a miraculous recovery) the fever was back, and the tiredness and coughing. I've been watching him like a hawk, but now we are into week 2 and I feel like he is in the same situation as your little one was. We're going to call the ped back tomorrow for guidance.

I'm glad you family is on the mend. I hope we will be soon too!

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=669313733]

I remain amazed that I got through the last two weeks of babysitting all these sick kids without getting it.

[Sue @ Laundry for Six]

OMG, that is all just horrible. I'm glad the plague is finally leaving you.

I had what I thought was H1N1 a few weeks ago, and I too was so sick, all I could do was stare at the back of the couch. I've NEVER been so sick! (Although my dr. thinks it was measles. And pneumonia!) I can't imagine my kids having had it too because I could barely get myself off the couch to go to the bathroom.

You are totally due an entirely healthy winter!!

[feefifoto]

Wow. Hope everyone's on his or her feet soon and for good. My son had flu last week and the docs told me to assume it was SF but they didn't want to test him. Luckily his case came and went in a few days.

[BananaBlueberry]

SO GLAD it sounds like you guys are on the mend!

xo