Germalicious

Last Friday about 2:45 Kady's teacher called me to say that Kady was not feeling well and did I want to come get her or just have her wait it out until the bell rang. We discussed the symptoms and came to the conclusion she would not perish in the next 45 minutes until she got home. But when she got home, she walked through the door, dropped her backpack, busted into tears and ran for her momma. She was burning up.

Being the stellar parents we are, we went out for Paul's birthday anyway. Yes, again, ship that trophy right here to my home address, if you please.

We hadn't been out in ages, Paul's birthday only rolls around once a year (as do most peoples') and Mom and Pops said they weren't afraid of a little fever, so we went. Of course, I called to check on her every hour and a half or so, essentially driving my parents nuts throughout the entire evening. We made the gambling tour, keeping up our recent tradition of not winning and by 10:30 I was yawning so hard my jaws were threatening to un-hinge. By the time Paul was ready to go at 1am I was chilling, had a headache and he sighed a deep sigh and said, "I'm probably not getting lucky when we get home, am I?" Bless his heart....I went to bed and he watched HBO.

I felt better the next day, piddled around the house doing some laundry, watching Juno for the umpteenth time and listening to my mp3 player uninterrupted. I picked up the kids, came back home long enough to let Sam change into his uniform, sent Paul and the three kids to Fairland for the games, I went the opposite way to Commerce to get our taxes done, did that, drove to Fairland, watched Sam's second game and in the meantime Kady started running her fever again. We didn't make it to church Sunday because her fever was over 104. She was complaining of a sore throat and a headache and with a fever that high I assumed it was strep. I called Cousin Courtney to tell her I thought it was strep and maybe Nonner shouldn't come out the next day until we knew for sure.

Monday morning Sis called and asked if TotOne could come out because she, too, had a fever and couldn't go to school. I figure what's one more fever and said bring her on. The girls each had a pallet on the end of the couch and happily and warmly watched TV until time for Kady's appointment. The PA looked her over, said she didn't look streppy....and said he wanted to test for the flu. And of course, she tested positive. Since she'd been running the fever since Friday it was too late to give her Tamiflu, but he gave it to Abby and Sam prophylactically and sent us on our merry way. When I called Sis to tell her Kady was positive she got TotOne an appointment with her PA. She tested negative for flu but had an ear infection and the PA said for her to not be around Kady. And Nonner couldn't come back until Kady had been fever-free for 24 hours, which was also when she could go back to school.

Tuesday morning around 7:45, about 15 minutes after the kids got on the bus, Abby called me from the bus monitor's phone and said that Sam had barfed on the bus. Paul went down to pick him up. He seemed to be fine by afternoon and Wednesday he went back to school. Wednesday afternoon Paul started running a fever. Thursday morning Kady went back to school, but Sam called me from the bus monitor's phone, crying, saying he was sick again - this time no puking, just severe stomach pain. I went down to pick him up. Again. Kady is on the couch this evening curled up in a ball with stomach pain as well. Paul missed two days of work, but should be able to go back tomorrow.

I am totally ignoring my sore throat and headache. I am firmly choosing to believe it is my sinuses and not the flu or any other virus. I am probably in denial.