Sickness and Sickness

So it's been a virtual eternity since I blogged last. (Hey, two weeks from me is quite the shutdown.) While there have been a few things that have gone on in that time that I'll get to, the biggest thing in that time period has been the constant battle to keep all of the Shoptaws healthy. It's a cause we've not been able to win just yet.

About two weeks ago, Sarah started having diarrhea. We didn't worry too much about it at first, mainly because it started on a Friday and by Sunday Meron was having all sorts of issues. That night Benjamin threw up, so at 3 in the morning I was dealing with all of them, basically, plus not feeling all that great myself.

I stayed home from work that Monday (the 11th) feeling pretty awful, though I only threw up once. Meron eventually got better after rest and medicine and Benjamin did also. In fact, he was good enough to go to TLC the next day.

However, Sarah's diarrhea never cleared up. We even tried to see if that as a symptom of teething (she's got a couple of teeth on top thinking about poking through) was a old wives' tale or not. (Consensus: they don't know.) Finally, we got her to to the doctor, who said that she had a 14-day virus and, as a result, could be temporarily lactose intolerant. We switched her formula temporarily to the non-milk variety and it cleared things right up.

So, all well and good, huh? I think that was about Valentine's Day when every one seemed to be OK. That Saturday, Benjamin starts running a fever. That seemed to be about the only symptom, but it was in the 102 degree range, so I stayed home with him that Sunday. (As an aside, we've only been to church as a family once in the last month, I believe. Meron's been home with Sarah twice and then the boy and I stayed home. And tomorrow's not looking good.....)

The fever continues to return, though it doesn't bother him too much. I took him to the doctor on the Monday (the 18th) and he said it was a virus with flu-like symptoms. We kept him home, gave him the Tylenol/Motrin bit, etc.

Then it came for me. Typically, I'm the hardy one of the bunch. I can go a year or two without missing work due to my sickness. (The whole three-months-due-to-GBS notwithstanding.) Yet I always seem to have to deal with some sinus junk. Usually I can just battle through, but not this time. I went home early from work Tuesday due to having chills and just no energy. I came home and took a nap before going to a short meeting at church that night.

Wednesday, not only was I dealing with it but, again, so was Meron. In fact, I spent a good part of the day corralling the kids while she slept because I was in better shape. Still, I figured I'd be back to work Thursday.

Thursday morning I got up, took some medicine, got my shower, then ate breakfast. I then immediately felt nauseous and feverish and went to lie down. I was able to get around enough to help Meron get the kids ready to go (Benjamin to TLC and Sarah to Mother's Day Out) and then I laid down on the couch. That was probably about 8:45 AM. Save for a couple of times to help Meron out on the computer after she got back, I didn't get off the couch until 1:30 PM, when Meron asked me to move to the bedroom. I laid in there until about 5:00 before getting around.

That seemed to have done the trick, though, because save for the cough, I'm doing OK and was back to work yesterday. Everyone seemed to be making it through. During all of this, of course, Sarah's been doing well, having fun, being energetic. Thursday night, she starts with the cough, and Friday brought fever and a runny nose.

Hopefully she'll get clear of this in a day or so and then we can stay relatively good. It's been such a rough month, health wise!

Anyway, that's plenty for this post. I'll hit the other highlights of the last two weeks in another post.