Where have I been

My resolution to post every day, or almost every day, has fallen by the wayside. Not by my own desire, or lack of ideas (I do have 4 kids!), but because those little 4 kids have been sick, for about a month and a half! It's not been fun. At one point in time they were all sick at the same time. You may think, 'Great! Get it over with all at once!' Not so fast. It's hard to keep track of all 4 kids with their medications, nebulizing, sleeping, potty, coughs, etc., etc. when their sick. I ended up charting on my own kids. (I am a nurse.)

What really threw me over the edge was Mini-Me. She has always had difficulty when she catches a cold. She wheezes, coughs, and gurgles the whole time. Every time she has a cold I need (or should) nebulize her. She's been this way from cold number one, at 1 month old. (Got to love older sibs bringing home nasty bugs)

All four of the kids caught the strange coughing virus that was spreading. Inconsistent fevers (up and down all day, even without medication), wheezing periodically, laying around occasionally then jumping up and running around like nothings wrong, horrible coughs every few hours or so.

After about a week everyone was starting to come around. Fevers going away, coughs becoming fewer, energy back in full force. I breathed a sigh of relief and headed off to work. I slept most of Saturday. When I got up, Hope was acting strange. She still had the cough and wheezing. They were worse than when I had left for work the night before. Her fever was up to 104. Contacted the pediatrician on call and then headed over to the ER.

There she was tested for RSV and H1N1 and had a chest x-ray. RSV and H1N1 test were negative! Yeah! But, chest x-ray came back with lots of gunk in one of her lungs - pneumonia. We spent the next day and a half in the hospital, on the floor I work on, while they pumped her full of antibiotics and she breathed pure oxygen.

Mini-Me grumped the whole time. She can be very miserable when she wants to be. Finally they said we could go home. She responded to the antibiotics and oxygen therapy well.

Despite being a nurse, it is very stressful for me to have my children in the hospital, even for minor things. Guess I have an over active imagination and know too many things that can go wrong.

Finally, finally things are back to normal, which for us means illness free. Maybe now I can get back to all of the other things I should be getting done.