A week full of sickies

What. A. Week. I’m tired. When we left off, Reed had been sickly and had been called in an antibiotic.

Well, that antibiotic TORE up his little belly. He had dirty diapers one right after another all day long. That in turn made his little bottom AWFUL. Just awful. Neither of my kids have ever had a bottom that bad, even when Reed had a straight 10 days of diarrhea last fall. He was in so much pain and it was so sad. Zach had to work at a basketball game Monday night and I was home with the kids, and Reed was almost too much to handle. I was changing diapers every few minutes which would result in a screaming fest. I didn’t give him any more of the antibiotic and just prayed he’d sleep.

He woke up Tuesday and the dirty diapers had slowed some but his bottom still hurt. We got him some probiotics and the meds getting out of his system helped drastically. He came home with Zach Tuesday evening and seemed to have perked up considerably.

Ava and I went to gymnastics and as soon as she got to me waiting on her she said “I’m so tired.” And then her teacher walked up and said she had told her she was tired several times. I thought that was a little odd. On the way home I asked Ava if she wanted dinner and she said no. As we pulled into the garage she told me she had to go to the bathroom. I hurried her in the house and went back out to unload the car when I heard her crying. And I knew. I walked back in the house and she had thrown up. Thankfully she was in the bathroom and even though she didn’t quite make the toilet, I was SO thankful we weren’t a minute later or I would have had that all over my car.

She didn’t really seem like she had a bug but we erred on the side of caution and didn’t let her have anything to eat or drink even though she asked. We did finally let her have some water about an hour later, and 30 minutes after that she ate a couple crackers and fell asleep. She slept the whole night so we woke up Wednesday thinking it was just a fluke.

Reed woke up MUCH happier and seemed to be back to his normal self so we got him ready for school even though I’d planned to keep him home if his bottom was still hurting. Ava woke up and got dressed and could barely move off the couch. She kept saying she was just tired. She said she didn’t want to miss school but we could just tell she needed to stay home.

She just laid around most of the morning but never said what was bothering her even when I asked her what hurt. I checked her temp and she had about 100.2 fever. I noticed she was digging in her ear and asked her if it hurt and she finally told me it did. She was sooooo pitiful. I called and made a dr appt for the afternoon. Zach came home around 12:15 and we switched off so I could go to work.

I had been there only a little while when I got this text. I called Zach and told him to call the doctor and tell them we were bringing Reed too.

So I left to meet them at the doctor at 3:45 and we had to wait about 45 minutes. Ava just sat on one of our laps and was in and out of sleeping. Reed was a wild child and hard to corral. They finally called us back and the took Ava’s temp and it was 104.3!!!! No wonder she felt so awful. The doctor came in a short while later and confirmed her right ear was infected. He gave her the award for the worst ear all week! Reed’s left ear was “very, very red” so I can only guess it was infected when he was sick on Friday and that the medicine had started clearing it up. We left with a prescription for both kids and headed home.

We’d been home around 10 minutes when I saw a text that the prescriptions were ready. I headed to go pick them up and when I got there she told me that they weren’t ready and actually didn’t have any in stock. Umm… ok. I asked about the text and she said it was a mistake. Great. So she tried calling about 4 other pharmacies and no one had enough of the medicine for Ava. I could have gotten Reed’s but he wasn’t the one who needed it so badly. I went out to the car and tried calling two other pharmacies and then just cried. I called Zach and then my mom and decided to call the dr back. I got the answering service and finally got a call back. The dr sent a new prescription to a different pharmacy. He was going to let Reed have the one he’d already prescribed but was going to give Ava the one Reed had previously been taking. I wasn’t crazy about this but didn’t really have a choice. About that time, my mom called and said she’d found the meds at the pharmacy that she used and she had given them the kids info and the pharmacy to call to get the prescription and told me to hurry before they closed at 6:30. It was 6:15 so I flew over there and thankfully got the meds. They didn’t have the right dose for Ava but they had one that was 2x so they gave us that and just cut the dose in 1/2. Why no other pharmacy didn’t think of that I don’t know but I was SOOOOO grateful to these people.

This pharmacy just happened to be in the little shopping center that contains Chick-fil-a. So, after the day I had, I felt like I had earned a milkshake. And it was GOOD! Ava also asked for a sandwich and since she hadn’t eaten all day I was happy to offer her anything that she would eat.

She still feels pretty yucky today and is still running a small fever. Reed seems to be ok and is full of energy now that his bottom doesn’t hurt so bad. I am PRAYING that we can leave this sickness behind and that we can all be well. It seems as if we’ve had one sickness after another since November. I know that’s part of it and we’ve done it, now I’m ready for it to be OVER. I am thankful for many things though – that Ava got sick at home, that this is all this week and not next week while Zach is out of town, that Zach and I can tag team since it’s a busy time at work for both of us and for my mom for helping us out so much. I’m also thankful that even though this week has been physically and emotionally draining, these illnesses are small. We are able to treat them with a simple antibiotic. And for that I’m extremely grateful. I pray for those parents who deal with kids who are really sick on a full time basis.

All that being said, I’m ready to kiss this week GOODBYE!