Are we sure it isn't Winter?

Warning: This is a gripe.

Why does it feel like Winter you may ask? Well it certainly isn't because of the weather. It has to do primarily with the fact that I feel like I have been running a damn infirmary with the kids the past two friggin' months. They had stomach flu, colds, strep throat, more colds, coughs, fevers out the wazoo. I have officially had enough. Lyd got sick last week with a very nasty cough. It just seemed to get worse and worse, so I took her in on Thursday last week. The doctor gave her a very thorough check over and found she had some chest virus really bugging her. She was wheezing and overall just feeling like crap. He prescribed prednisolone and albuterol He said if she got a fever over 101 to bring her back in right away. So, all Friday she was fine. We skipped swim lessons on Thursday and went on Friday. Thankfully, she didn't even swim because it was water safety stuff that was all out of pool. Roo swam, and began coughing shortly thereafter. We get home, I feed them and they crash hard.

Saturday morning arrives and Lyd strolls out of the back of the house obviously feeling terrible, and says, "Mommyyyyy, I don't feel good". I ask her what doesn't feel good, and she comes and lays next to me saying in a very whinny voice, "Myyyy whooooole body feels awful". As soon as she leaned against me I could tell she had a fever. She was also specifically complaining about her right lower hip/abdomen area hurting when she coughed. I take her temp and it is 102.4. I dose her up with Tylenol and give the doctor a call. He isn't on call this weekend and the service says to take her to the Urgent Care center, or I could wait and take her to the on call doctor this weekend who was Dr. Tank. I hate Dr. Tank, so I wasn't going to take her to see him to save my soul. I get her dressed and we get to Urgent Care and get seen fairly quickly. I find out why we got seen pretty quickly. This doctor was spending about 45.8 seconds with each patient. He looked her over very quickly, no ear/throat infection going on, lungs sound clear. He never even looked at her abdomen. Just said the prednisone was causing that. Whatever.

We get back home, I dose her up with Motrin before putting her down for a nap at noon. She slept through to around 5:00 pm. She was burning up when she got up and crying about her lower abdomen hurting on the right hand side. She didn't want to move or anything. I take her temp and it is 102.8 now and she is crying in pain. Mark had just left to go motorcycle riding (with my good graces), and he was already out of cell phone shot in the toolies. I call over a neighbor to watch Roo while I took Lyd to the ER. I wasn't messing around if this was her appendix acting up. ER room was full, but we were seen fairly quickly. Lyd was very scared because she never had been to the ER room, and the only ER room she has seen has been on TV in the trauma unit where they are always doing surgery. She was very concerned about being cut open. When we finally see the doctor he looks over her closely and Lyd is no longer really complaining of abdomen pain at all. He is pushing in on her tummy hard, and she doesn't even flinch. Hooray, at least no emergency apendectomy for her. We return home and get her comfy again for the evening. She continued to run a fever all day Sunday which just would not stay away if she didn't have either Motrin or Tylenol coursing through her veins. At times, it took the combo to keep the fever down.

She woke up today still with a fever. I took her back to see her doctor (the one we saw last Thursday). Finally, there was something definitive to diagnose! She has an ear infection. I am guessing this is what has been brewing for the past several days and causing her fever. If they would have given her antibiotics earlier I just wonder if she would already be feeing better, rather than having to endure an extra three days of feeling like sh*t. She is currently on hour 3 of another power nap. I am going to try and get her to eat something when she wakes up. She hasn't eaten much at all since she has been sick. She has lost a couple of pounds and the girl hasn't got it to lose.

Rooing is doing much better with his cold. I kept him home today as well, but he doesn't seem much bothered by his at all other than a terrible sounding cough. He is my cougher though. If he gets a cough, he always sounds like it is the whooping cough. He will be going back to preschool tomorrow.

Right now, I am very done with waiting rooms, getting prescriptions filled, arguing with kids about taking their medications. I am crabby today. I think my period is coming around the horn here soon. I don't like this feeling. I have been getting crabby before my last couple of periods and let me tell you, I really feel for the women who endure it every month. It is no fun to be on edge like that, almost looking for a fight while everyone else breathing your air is pissing you off. I hope this doesn't become a regular thing.

Other than taking care of my kids, I haven't been doing a whole lot. I have been trying to get things purged from my house. The clutter is driving me crazy. I am getting rid old junk I tend to hang onto for no apparent reason. And, the stuff I do want to keep, but don't need access to really, is being filed in boxes and put away in the garage. I have been shredding old documents and stuff that we no longer need. With ID theft so high I dare not toss a medical statement in the trash! I have shredding 3 bags so far. As I was looking through all my old medical stuff I found the first office receipt for my first ever pregnancy OB appointment. I did miscarry that baby at 9 weeks or so, but I was struck by the due date for that baby. April 19th. Well, I got my April 19th baby, just three years later. That is Roo's birthday.

I am kind of behind at work because I have been missing so many days lately. I will need to go in tonight to get stuff ready for tomorrow. I will also keep packing stuff away tomorrow. I can't believe how much junk we have in this building. My nephew is now working for me, so that is cool. He is helping out quite a bit. My former helper got a better job so I had to get someone else pronto. We shall see what we get done tomorrow.