H1N1...

Last weekend, I got really sick suddenly on Friday night. Fever, cough, headache, etc. But my cough made me think it was more like bronchitis than anything else. I called the doctor who was on-call for our office. He called in a prescription for me.

Saturday night, I was getting worse and was also having trouble breathing. I called the doctor back again and this time he said to go in to the emergency room, so we went in. Hubby took me in and my mom stayed with the kiddos.

They did numerous tests (I don't quite remember it all because they gave me a dose of Tylenol - yeah, I am super sensitive to medication) but I do remember the H1N1 test. Ouch and yuck! The test came back negative. The doctor said that the test has a high false negative rate (about 40% of all negative test results are false) and that I had the classic symptoms of the H1N1 flu, so he told me to discontinue the medicine prescribed the previous day and to take the Tamiflu he prescribed instead. So, I did and I'm still not feeling 100% but I am definitely feeling much better than I was.

Fast forward to last Monday night. Boy B started having the same symptoms. We decided that we would keep him home from school the next day. We also made him a doctor's appointment because he ends up with severe respiratory infections and this was the second time this school year that he has had something like this. His ped tested him for H1N1 and sure enough, it was positive. Our ped gave him a prescription for a steroid to help his lungs but no Tamiflu because its not really effective in children.

Boy B started to get over it (to the extent that last night, he came up to me and said, "Mom, I think I lost the flu.") and then by Wednesday, Boy A started showing signs and symptoms as well. So, home he stayed from school for the rest of the week as well. Both are on the mend now.

Another fast forward to Sunday morning. Boy C woke up at 2am and Boy A woke up around 3am. I had my route to do and Hubby hadn't been asleep for very long, so I decided to have the boys go with me. Boys A and B like to go along and do the actual running of the papers if they are up in time for it (not very often are they up at that hour though). But I figured that on Sunday morning, Boys A and C could ride along with me. That way, they would both be supervised and Hubby could continue to sleep. We got home afterwards and Boy C slept from 7am until 9am. Not a very long nap considering he was up most of the night.

All of the kids laid down for naps in the afternoon (Boys A and B are getting over being ill, Girlie is just starting to show signs of it and Boy C appears to have scathed by untouched by it all). Hubby was in charge of naps and he let them all fall asleep late and therefore, sleep late. I ended up waking them all up at 5:00pm. Boy A came down to the family room and ended up falling back asleep on the floor. Boy B stayed awake coloring and Girlie watched a movie. Boy C went to the living room and laid down on the floor up there and fell asleep. It was the same thing that Boy A did so I figured it was related to their non-sleep the night before.

Next thing I know, Hubby is freaking out that and yelling that Boy C is seizing. He rushes up the stairs and before I can tell him not to, he has Boy C in his arms. I take Boy C from him, bring him down to the family room and tell Hubby to call the doctor's office, or rather, the nurse line that answers for them. He is placed on hold immediately - it doesn't even go to a person before it goes to hold. So Hubby is on hold on the phone and I'm sitting with Boy C and making sure he is on his side while he seizes, etc. Meanwhile, our other kids are gathered around, worried about their baby brother.

I tell Hubby that the nurse line is taking too long and tell him to call the hospital ER instead. He calls them and we switch places. I talk to the registrar (though I wish I would have talked to the triage nurse instead) and she said in a very ho-hum way "if you want to bring him in, go ahead" (more on her later, ugh!)

Hubby tells Boy A to go get Boy C some clothes (he had taken his nap in just a diaper) so Boy A goes and gets some footed sleeper jammies for Boy C and we dress him once he stops seizing. At this point, Boy C is back to newborn-like muscle control. His head is too heavy for his body, he is just limp, and unable to help dress himself or even sit up.

Once dressed, I head out the door with him and we go straight to the ER. When I get there, the lovely and caring registrar is sitting at the desk. "I can't help you right now," she informs me, "I'm stuck on something." She was on the phone about a patient, I could tell and I wasn't sure what else to do, so I stepped back to allow for a bit of privacy (you know, HIPPA and all) until one of the other registrars calls to me and has me come back. We go back and I explain what we are there for. The triage nurse (a really wonderful male nurse with fabulous patient care!) comes up before we even have the papers signed and asks me if this is the child with the seizure. I tell him it is and he ushers me back to the triage room. He takes a quick set of vitals (including a temp of 102.6) and health history and then checks on room availability. He says that if we wait for the paperwork and armband to catch up with us and we walk real slow, we could time it just right, because the room was just being cleaned. He checks on the paperwork and the armband and has us wait in the triage room.

We get Boy C's sheet of stickies (the labels that they use on anything that pertains to his visit tonight) and head off to the room, without the paperwork or the armband. We go in and get situated and the nurse comes in and talks with me and does a quick check of the boy. She asks if I had given him anything for his temp and I said no, because he hadn't had a temp all day and other than the odd sleeping hours, he was acting just fine all day, right up to the point when he started to seize. She said that most likely he had been fine and then spiked a sudden fever which caused the seizure. Okay, cool, I can handle that. Febrile seizure, no big deal. But then they want to know why he had a sudden spike of fever and they decide to test for the H1N1 flu of course. Hubby comes in and joins us at some point during this, but I can't remember when exactly. Anyhow, the nurse goes to get the swabs and comes back with an assistant to help hold Boy C down so she can do the test. It's a quick process which is good because it is one of the most unpleasant experiences ever. Anytime someone has to forcibly stick something up your nose is the makings of a bad day (or night) in my opinion.

She takes the test out and lets us know that they will also do an x-ray to rule out pneumonia, which I guess is a fairly common side effect of H1N1. Then the doctor comes in and talks to me and tells me what they are going to do (or have already done) and then he's gone. I think it was at that point, that registrar came in and finally gave us Boy C's armband. She was totally rude and I'm glad that the whole experience was not based on just her manner. (I also didn't find out until later on when we were leaving that when Hubby got there, the good registrar had caught him and had him sign papers for consent to treat, etc.)

So we go to x-ray and a tech and I hold Boy C in position for one straight-on chest x-ray and one side-view chest x-ray. I am not a big fan of x-rays in general. My father-in-law is a radiologist and he can back me on this one. But when the benefit outweighs the risk, it's worth it.

We get back to the room and the doctor comes back in and informs us the test is positive, and that he will be starting Boy C on Tamiflu to treat it and is ready to head out the door. But I stop him and question his use of Tamiflu. He said that because of Boy C's seizure and the severity of his symptom onset, it was best in his opinion to prescribe the medicine. He also said that if the symptoms had not been so severe and so quickly onset, he wouldn't prescribe it. I accepted that as a good response. I don't like doctors to just throw a prescription at a set of symptoms and even when given prescriptions, we are very cautious about giving them.

By the time we get home, Boy C is almost back to himself. He is still acting very much like a baby and would just lay wherever he was placed. Oh - and one other odd thing that happened while we were at the hospital...it seemed like Boy C was trying to nurse. I was holding him and he started to do the rooting motions and when he was close, he opened his mouth and started licking my shirt. I kept repositioning him but he kept trying it, so I ended up laying him down and just rubbing his tummy or forehead or his arm instead. It was so odd - he's 24 1/2 months old and hasn't nursed since he was about 10 months old. I don't know what prompted that tonight, but Hubby and I both found it incredibly odd and plan to ask his ped about it later on.

So that was our experience this past week. Hoping that Boy C gets over it all fairly quickly and that Girlie will get it and get it over with as well so that we can all get back to normal again. Ahhhhhh!

Failed Friday...well, sort of

Well, it was an interesting day. I can give it that much. MIL called in the morning and said that she was done with her electrician and that she would be ready at any time to go to that garage sale and get the table and chairs (and this side hall mirror/table thing) and that she would meet us at our house. So, she comes over and we drive up to the sale (she in her car with our Littles and us in our van) two blocks from our house. I park and then head over to the car to sit with the Littles while MIL and Hubby load her items into our van. All starting out well.

MIL comes back to the car and I get out and head back towards my van and she leaves, heading for her house with the kids. We are going to head that way too. Hubby wanted me to look at something (a pop-up kennel that we ended up buying for our dog) so we look and then buy it, get in the van and go to start it. I turn the key and the van clicks. Groan. Not now. Not with a van load of MIL's garage sale purposes. Not while I'm parked in a prime spot at a garage sale. So I try it again. Click, click, click. Deep breath. I turn to Hubby. "It's not working."

So, he calls his mom and lets her know. He also heads home to grab some oil (our van is almost 10 years old - it uses oil and is a bit overdue for a change, I just haven't gotten under there yet) and comes back. The oil level is okay, but Hubby adds some more despite my telling him not to.

While we are standing at the front of the van, the windshield wipers come on and start spraying water. The windshield wipers are off. The van is off. No clue what is going on with that (and I still don't know).

MIL comes over and after a quick assessment of the situation, she talks to the garage sale hosts and asks to borrow jumper cables. We try to jump it. No luck. The van at this point won't even click now. Great! So, MIL gets on her cell and calls her repair shop and then Triple A to come tow it.

Hubby leaves and walks the kids home so that they can go down for naps (as we have now been out there for awhile and they are getting tired and cranky) MIL gets off the phone with Triple A and says that they said it could be anytime within the next hour. "Might as well browse a bit more," we decide.

We walk up the driveway, I look at two picture frames that match the style of frames we use in our house and decide to get them (75 cents apiece and one of them was still brand new!) and I pay for my frames, then we start to walk out of the garage to look some more and a flat bed semi from Triple A shows up. I point it out to MIL and she wasn't sure it was there for us, since that would have been too fast. But the semi doesn't move, just sits there, so she goes out to talk to the driver. I follow behind.

By the time I get down there, the van is running. The Triple A guy was able to jump it with some tool he has. He informs MIL of a service they have and I explain the parts of it that he isn't explaining well and the MIL is not catching on to. We decide to use the service (a battery truck will come out and check the battery, replace the battery if need be, and also check the other systems to insure that they aren't needlessly draining the battery) and agree to meet the guy at MIL's house. The van is running and we can get the items to her house and get them unloaded before the battery truck gets there. So, we call Hubby and let him know that we are going to swing back around and pick him and the kids up and head back out so we can complete our original plans for the day, albeit later than we expected.

We pick them up and head over to MIL's. We unload the items and get them set up in her house. She got some fabulous deals! And then we wait for the guy. He was supposed to be there in about half an hour. About forty-five minutes later, he gives MIL a call, letting her know that he's about half an hour away. So, we feed the kids lunch.

The battery guy gets there and starts his tests. It's taking forever so Hubby puts the kids down for a nap. Once he gets them calmed down and settled in, the guy is done so its time to get those poor Littles up again. Hubby heads home with them (because now it is close to the time that the Big boys will be walking home from school) to put them down for their naps there (as he had originally tried to do. MIL and I get in the van and head down to FIL's business.

We spend quite a while, walking around, looking in the offices and checking out different chairs, lots of pictures and various things. In the end, we got six wood and vinyl chairs for our kitchen table, one wood and fabric chair for our computer desk, and a whole slew of pictures. I got a picture that is in the style of "The Rainbow Fish", you know, the childrens' storybook? I also got two Winnie-the-Pooh theme pictures and a bright Zebra picture for our kids' playroom. Finally some artwork to hang up to make it fun and whimsical in there! Then I got a wooden picture with muted tones for our bedroom. Two pictures for the living room and one that matches the style of pictures in our family room, but our family room doesn't need any additional pictures, although I did come up with two different spots in here where it could be used.

So, in all, that part of the day went well. We got what we went to look for and MIL and I had a nice time together. Any time that MIL and I have a good day together is a good day. Just plain and simple.

So, we get home and we transfer the pictures that MIL got for her house over to her car and she heads out. We unload some of the stuff from the van and I take a nap. :)

While I'm napping, Hubby finishes unloading the van and gets everything inside and then puts our van seats back in and gets the kids ready for the school carnival tonight.

The school carnival. It was all right. Nothing great and fantastic, but the kids enjoyed themselves and the little prizes that they won and seeing their friends and their friends' families. Boy A said hi to a group of older girls (he is in 3rd grade, these girls were most definitely in middle school) and one of the girls turned around, saw him and said, "Oh hi, Boy A." Of course, she said his real name, not "Boy A" but you know... And I look at Hubby and then I look at Boy A and I'm trying to figure out how my little boy knows those girls and I can't figure it out. So I ask him. "Oh, that one there," he points to one of the girls, "she's Girl S's sister." Girl S is a neighbor (and well, I guess her sister is also, LOL!) but Girl S was in Boy A's class last year and they played together quite a bit last year. They didn't spend much time together over the summer or this year yet, but I wonder if its just a matter of differing schedules.

So anyhow, I found out how he knew them and my ruffled feathers laid back down nicely and I was able to enjoy the rest of the evening. Then we came home, fed the kids and put them to bed.

The carpets didn't get cleaned, the playroom is not in playroom order, and there are chairs and pictures in my family room that don't belong. But there's always tomorrow. Girl L doesn't get here until 3 pm and technically, it's not even here at our house, it will be at MIL's house to watch our college football team play.

Oh, and I was able to borrow the camera. I can't remember if I said that or not, but I'll upload some pictures in a bit too of the boys in a race car of some sort tonight at the carnival. And there will be pictures tomorrow! You can guarantee that!

What A Wonderful Evening!

Well, I got most of the things accomplished on my list for today that I had hoped to accomplish. And a few things that I didn't have on my list that also got done too. For instance, I have been having issues getting my computer and my printer/scanner/copier to communicate with each other...well, actually getting the machine to communicate with the computer. The computer communicates with the machine just fine. Anyhow, I found out one way to bypass the communication problem. I still plan to fix it but for now, I have found a temporary solution to the problem until I have more time to spend working on it.

Another thing that got done (though I cannot take credit for it in the least): Hubby rearranged some items in our garage so that we can actually park a vehicle in there. Our 2 1/2 car garage, which is also extra-deep, can now fit one car in. YAY! There is just so much STUFF out there to be dealt with that it is completely overwhelming to me. That will be a large (very large) ongoing tackle for the future. Most of it could probably just be thrown away but I keep hanging on to some of it because...I need to go through it. I just need the time and the energy (best if they are present together) to do it. Also, I need trash cans available to do it. When I do go to tackle this monster mess, I plan to go into it with a mindset of pitching most of it and only keeping out the things that are really important or worth something. Maybe I'll make a few trips to a donation center as well. I'm past the point now, I think, of holding on to something for a future garage sale. It was supposed to happens sometime this summer and it never did. No reason to keep it around until next year in the hopes that it may sell. Besides, we have cold winters here and I'd much rather have the space for the vehicles!

I went to the Mary Kay party tonight with my friend, Server G. It was so much fun! And my face feels AWESOME! I hardly ever wear make-up and honestly, do little more than wash my face in the shower. But I do love MK products and I have for a long time. I just forgot how much until tonight. And somehow, in the process of it all, I signed up to be a consultant. It will be fun! I'm not outgoing by any means. I know it may seem otherwise because I frequently have really long posts, but this is my comfort zone. At a monitor, by myself, with no one watching me. A spot where I can make mistakes, erase them and you never know. A place where I can be in the middle of something, decide that I don't feel like working on it anymore at that exact moment and then save it, leave it and come back to it later. For some reason, you can't do those things in real life. So, we shall see! However, if anyone is in need of MK products or anything, let me know! I can help you out! :) (Okay, slight plug, but I had to. It's my blog. I can do that, right?)

To top the night off, when I got home from the party (an hour or so later than expected) Hubby had the kids in bed asleep. It was wonderful! Yay! Thanks again so much, Honey!

I have a semi-busy day tomorrow. I have a lot of research to do before Boy C's 2 year check-up on October 7. There is so much information that I'm working on digesting and trying to figure out at the moment. But I plan to go in to his appointment with a list of things to talk and ask about and to have as much information on hand as I can. I have three weeks to get as much as I can done on the research front. But that will be another blog post entirely.

So, without further ado, I bid you good evening. I'm going to bed (at a closer to reasonable time tonight - I have tonight off after all.)

Tackle It Tuesday

I am determined that today will be much better planned and followed through with. Yesterday was a horribly planned day. Well, actually, it was well planned. The plan just was not followed. So today, hopefully, we can change that. And just for the record, by "we" I mean "I" because yesterday's plan deviations were all me.

Yesterday's lessons learned, and it is on to today.

• Boy A needs to correct his homework


• Boy B needs to finish his homework
  (Side note: Didn't get it done so went in and talked to his teacher. She hadn't expected it to all be done yet, so I marked it off. He worked on some of it.)

I need to:

• clean the living room


• bring blocks and other small kid toys up from the playroom


• find out if our dry erase board is also magnetic(It is!)


• get ready for Boy C's teacher and coordinator to come over

After teaching, then I need to:

• take the Littles (this is Girlie and Boy C) to Grandma M's house, so she can watch them


• go pay a couple of bills (including that garbage bill, ugh!)


• come home, make sure I look presentable and go in to a company for a job interview


• come back home, pick up the house a bit


• NAP (as I work nights, I need to sleep some during the day)


• wake up, get kids from Grandma M and come home Well, this one I delegated, but it still got done. That counts right?


• make dinner, get kids going on homework Also delegated, but still it is done.


• attend a Mary Kay party held by my friend, Server G


• come home, get kids ready for bed Hubby got the kids to bed while I was at the Mary Kay party. How awesome is that? Thanks Sweetie!


• spend some quality time with Hubby


• go to work

There are a few things on my list that I can pass off to Hubby (and likely will, just for sanity and time reasons) but overall, I think that plan should work and work well.

But for now, I must get started on some of the pre-teaching stuff.

Link up with other moms doing "Tackle It Tuesday" by clicking on the picture above.

Soccer!!!

Today is our second day of soccer for the season. Boy B seems to be in fine soccer mode, after our recent bout with sickness. He's been fever-free since early Friday morning, he's in good spirits and not contagious. It's TIME TO PLAY!

Okay, so this is the part where I admit that, since I was sick this whole last week, I failed our team. I am the main contact person (secretary, if you will) and I have been out of contact with everyone. I was supposed to get schedules and new rosters to the families. I was supposed to have a sheet ready for this one mom who wanted to know what she can do to practice with her son between our practices and games, I was supposed to have this child over to play and practice with Boy B, but our house was sick, so all of that failed.

This morning, I am going to have Hubby call all of the kids' families, letting them know our game time and get an exact head count for who will be there. I will be printing out the sheet for the mom to give to her at the practice and game. I will be going shopping for healthy snack for the kids for after the game. I will also be cleaning out the van to make sure we have room in there for our stroller (for Boy C) and our camp chairs (for Boy A, Girlie and myself) and our cooler with our water bottles and snacks. So much work for one hour, you know? Ah well, it's worth it. And Boy B is so excited that his Daddy and C are his coaches. Just warms a momma's heart, ya know?

And then tomorrow, we get to repeat the procedure for Boy A's football practice, but before that, we also have swim lessons for Boy A and B (though, I think we'll have Boy B's ear checked out first to see if he can swim) and Child Watch for Girlie and Boy C.

Let's get ready for.....sooooooocccccccceeeeeeerrrrrrrr!

Sick, sick, sick

It seems like it has been so long since we have not had a sick child in the house, but really, its only been two weeks. Two weeks today, actually. Finally we are all on the mend!

Boy B (who is 5) got sick two weeks ago today with a bad cough, fever and just acted lethargic. Wouldn't eat, wouldn't drink, wouldn't move. He was miserable (adorable but miserable). His first soccer practice/game of the season was the next day and I knew he wasn't up to playing, but thought maybe he'd want to go along just to watch and at least meet the other kids on the team.

His response? "No, I don't want to. What if I cough on them and I get them sick?" This was said in a raspy, froggy-sounding voice. My heart just melted.

So, the kiddos stayed home with Grandma while Hubby and I went off to the game. Hubby is the head coach and Hubby's friend, C, is the assistant coach. It's kind of backwards, considering the fact that C is a huge soccer fan and LOVES to play and watch, and as it turns out, coach.

Then, that Monday, Boy B missed school, went to the doctor's office and we were told that he has para influenza. They did a quick strep test and a cultured test. Hubby and I thought it sounded like he had strep, but the quick strep came back negative.

We got a call the next day. The cultured strep test was positive, and where would we like the prescription called in to? So, we start antibiotics.

Wednesday, he still has a fever, Thursday morning it FINALLY breaks. Looking good to be back at school on Friday. I call his school and request his homework. Boy A brings it home with him after school.

Thursday night. Kitchen table. Two boys sitting down to do homework. Boy A, who is 8 and in 3rd grade with 2 pages of homework. Boy B, who is 5 and in kindergarten with 8 pages of homework (front AND back). Math problem: which child finishes first?

Answer: They finish at the same time.

It takes Boy A FOREVER to do his homework. He's a smart kid, he just does not like to sit down and focus on one subject long enough to finish a page of homework. Meanwhile, Boy B sits there, diligently and methodically, going through his homework one page at a time, stopping only to ask me to read him the directions. I don't understand this.

Actually, I think I do. We had discussed quite a while ago about homeschooling the kids. At the last minute, we enrolled Boy A in Kindergarten and he's been in public school since. His best year was first grade. His teacher was fabulous, she kept on him, it was wonderful! Kindergarten was good, but he slid back a lot in what he could do, second grade was horrible. Absolutely horrible. For him and for our family. It came out everywhere. Then we moved. That helped matters quite a bit, because we were in a different school.

This year, I don't know. I'm not even sure what to think just yet. Boy B does FABULOUS in school. I told Hubby years ago, when Boy A was about 5 and Boy B was almost 3, that I was pretty sure, based on their personalities at that time, that Boy A should definitely be homeschooled and that Boy B would probably do well in a regular classroom. Why do I not listen to myself? Honestly. I listen to others, doubt my own gut instinct and then my poor kiddo pays for it. And I pay for it, by having to sit next to him for an hour to make sure he gets his two pages done.

Hubby and I went shopping recently and we picked up a globe, which is not a huge deal for most people. But I have been wanting to have a globe in the house for, probably, four or five years now. I am so excited! I told Hubby that buying this globe only makes me want to homeschool Boy A even more. He said that he knew that. Maybe we can still do it.

Okay, so I started off with sickness...let's go back to that. So, last week, Boy B missed Monday through Thursday. He went back Friday. All was good. No school on Monday because of Labor Day (no sports that weekend either). Monday night, Boy B and now Boy A are BOTH running fevers. No school for either one of them the next day. And no school for Boy C because his teacher comes here to the house and we can't risk exposing her to the other boys because she visits a lot of families and some of the kids in those families have kids who are susceptible to sickness.

It's been crazy. This house of sickness. I'm so tired and exhausted. I got sick and ended up having to take a week off of work myself, this week. Thursday night, Boy B wakes up scream-crying. Take him in to get checked out because I know what it is. The doctor's diagnosis: "a rip-roaring ear infection" Hmmmmph. Can we not get ahead of this?

Okay, so here's my take on this. He had strep throat (caused by group A strep), used antibiotics which treats that (and also kills off good fighting cells too), thus making him more prone to the ear infection (caused by strep pneumo) for which we needed a different course of antibiotics. The question is...do I give him those and leave him vulnerable to yet another infection or do I forego them and just wait to see? We have done the wait and see approach with our kids before (oddly enough, it was after Boy A kept getting recurrent ear infections when he was younger that we kept treating him for) and our doctor is supportive of it. Most cases of ear infection clear up on their own in about the same amount of time it takes an antibiotic to work, but without the side effects of the antibiotic. At this point, I am taking the wait and see approach. I have the script ready to go if needed, but I'm hoping we won't need it. He's already missed almost half of his classes already this year. Poor kid may have to be homeschooled, just based on the fact that he's been too sick to be allowed in regular school. :) (Okay, so I'm not totally feeling that bad about it. I would love to homeschool him. But that's just between us.) :)