Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Contagion!

Ugh. Between LL, S, and me, somebody in our house has been sick more or less continuously since mid-November. Last week was the stomach flu, which hit all three of us at the same time. LL was the only one of us who had gotten a flu shot this year, which is probably why his only lasted ~36 hours. S was intensely sick for four days. I was never quite as sick as S, but my symptoms lasted an entire week. (That's pretty typical for us -- S usually gets sick with amazing ferocity, and then recovers quickly, while I get a milder version of everything, but then I'm sick for twice as long.) The fact that all three of us were sick at the exact same time, though, was particularly bad. We finally declared the entire household "well" on Saturday, and we had a wonderful illness-free weekend.

LL started sniffling a bit Sunday night, but we stayed in denial about it until Monday afternoon, when we all finally had to admit that yes, LL has a head cold. Congestion, runny nose, sneezing, cough. Fairly typical stuff.

At least, it seemed typical until last night, when he started wheezing and having trouble catching his breath. We spent all last night at the urgent care clinic. The wheezing would get better only to get worse again. The doctor thought it was probably just a little upper respiratory irritation, except that LL's oxygen levels were low, so they ran some additional tests and waddya know: lower respiratory infection, coupled with croup. And we're actually lucky (yes, lucky) that he was wheezing from the infection, because then we were able to catch the croup fairly early, before it got too bad.

They were able to get him breathing normally last night, finally, and we now have medicine at home to help his lungs to calm down and heal. He's in a great mood, even though his breathing is still fairly labored, his congestion is keeping him from sleeping, and his fever is stubbornly sticking around. He's running and dancing all over the house, and doesn't quite understand why we won't let him go to daycare and play with the other kids. And between sick days for me and sick days for taking care of LL, my thesis is kinda at a standstill.

At some point we'll all be healthy again, right?!?

6 comments:

LabMom said...

(hugs) We have BTDT too.
We had the stomach bug and now my youngest brought home croup which I proceeded to catch (didn't know grown ups could get croup did you?) Fortunately she bounced back quick, but I am still suffering.

I just keeping telling myself summer will come soon and all that fresh air will do wonders!

Hang in there! Hopefully this will turn around for you quickly.

And everyone tells me that if they are sick a lot now they will be healthy as horses when they are older. A mom can dream can't she?

Jen said...

Spring can't come soon enough for you guys. I'm glad to hear that LL is feeling better, but boy has it been tough going for you all!

HereWeGoAJen said...

Oh no! That is a lot of sick. I hope the sickness goes away and never comes back!

Amanda@Lady Scientist said...

I hope you all get well and stay that way soon! I'm glad that LL is doing better and I hope he can be back with his friends at daycare soon!

K @ ourboxofrain said...

I'm sorry you guys have been dealing with so much sick. It's been a problem around here too -- Harry has been sick on and off since late August, with the latest cold seeming to have been present for over a month (does it count as getting better between if the better only lasts 2 days?). (And we all had stomach bugs this week.) Your post has me worried that we may have progressed to respiratory infection and/or croup around here as well.

We DID NOT have this problem last year. I really hope this winter ends soon!

Sunny said...

Yuck! This time of year is so tough for avoiding the sickies. We were supposed to have a play date with five toddlers, and we canceled it because four of them were sick.

I hope it passes quickly... come on spring!