Whatcha Gonna Catch???

There is so much "stuff" going around right now, it makes you want to hole-up in the house and not breathe! :o) Last week I got a note in Matthew's backpack that said there was a student that attended there that had been confirmed to have pertussis, or more commonly known as whooping cough. Oh wonderful! Just what I need to worry about, BUT, Matthew just got the pertussis booster when he had his sixth grade physical right before school started, so I felt like he would be pretty safe. Thank goodness for vaccinations...seems like someone else needed their booster. Then today I receive a note in Jacob's backpack saying that a student from there had been diagnosed with influenza, but it was not confirmed that it was H1N1. They are not testing for the H1N1 virus in general unless the person falls in a certain category, usually hospitalized or institutionalized. Well, Jacob sounded pretty rough this morning and then when Mom was fixing to cut his hair this afternoon, she said he felt warm. I took his temperature and sure enough he had a fever. That was enough for me! After his haircut, I loaded him up and we headed out for Quick Care. It is a really nice little clinic and I would recommend it over Urgent Care. However, if given the choice, I'd MUCH rather take my kiddos to their own pediatrician!! But, since her office was already closed for the day, I decided to give Quick Care a try. We waited a very minimal time and Jacob was feeling really rough. His fever had gone up even more and his ears were as red as I've ever seen and the whites of his eyes were even red. One of his ears was red on the inside as well, and she said it could be from the fever and perhaps wasn't an infection. The nurse practitioner practically swabbed his brain to test for flu and thankfully it came back negative!! She said that if the flu test did indeed come back negative that she would treat him as if he had strep, but she was not going to torture him with another swabbing! (His throat was red upon examination and it very well could be strep, but I'm leaning toward more the sinus infection/drainage route.) Either way, the antibiotic she prescribed will take care of either strep or a sinus infection, so we're good to go. She also gave him script for an antihistamine/decongestant/cough medicine combo, and I'm giving him Tylenol and Motrin as needed for fever!! WOW! Combine that with Matthew's antibiotic and other regular medicine, and my allergy tablets and we are definitely DOPED!!! Needless to say, medicine time is not always pretty around here!

Even though Jacob felt pretty rough at the clinic, I couldn't help but get tickled at him. While waiting for the flu test to process, the practitioner left the room to see another patient. I was questioning Jacob if his legs hurt. (trying to see if his body was aching.) He said, "Yeah, this one kind of hurts a little right here. *points to shin area* I hope it's not a germ dancing down my leg causing it to hurt." HA!!! His little expression was TOO cute and I wasn't sure if he was delirious from fever or not! He sure did seem awful serious!!! :o) He complained with his leg hurting the entire time we were in the pharmacy and I told him on the way home that I would give him some Tylenol for his fever and it should help his leg quit hurting too. He, so seriously, said, "Maybe we could put a drop of that Tylenol between my toe-nail and toe so it can go straight up to my leg and make it quit hurting." I'm telling you, he's a nut!! Have I ever mentioned how much this child HATES to take medicine!!!!!!!! This morning when I asked him if he wanted to take medicine before school and he said, "Yeah, if it'll help," I was tipped off that he was really feeling bad. I just assumed it was allergies since he wasn't running a fever at the time.

Jacob has to miss his first day of school for this school year tomorrow :( He wanted to have perfect attendance SOOO bad this year, but it just ain't gonna happen. On a happy note, he said a day home with Momma was better than going to school anyway! Hopefully all you guys stay germ-free and healthy! I'll be glad to get my little fellas all well, but I'm glad that at this time it's not one of the more serious illnesses.