Sick, sick, sick

This post is probably going to come across as fill of complaints with a good dose of self-pity. So let me start by saying how grateful I am for the typical good health of my family. I'm grateful that even when we are sick we have a safe, warm, home and all of the comforts we need to take care of our family. 

That being said, being sick is the pits and we've been sick with one thing or another for over a month! It started with an awful stomach flu (throwing up every 15 minutes for about 12 full hours and then feeling pretty crummy for several days after that) that went through our family. Luckily not everyone was sick at the same time but it passed from person to person and was awful. 

I'm not going to detail out every sickness or the timeline or anything but for the sake of my 

-Stomach Bug for everyone but David 

-Head Colds/Sore Throat for everyone but David (COVID test for Shantel, negative)

-Ear Infection for Austin

-Stomach Bug for David

-Croup for Caleb

-4 day fever of 102 for Lucy

-Colds for all the kids

-Ear Infection for Lydia

-Horrible cold/sore throat for David (COVID test for David, negative)

-Stomach bug for Caleb

-Lingering coughs for all kids

It's been rough, especially because we missed so many fun activities which was such a bummer. We had to cancel: 

-Pizza Party at the "Mansion" 

-Camping with Walker/Haderlies at the Summer Range

-Primary Movie Night

-Library Summer Reading Pool Party

-Middleton Thursday Adventuring

-Kayak/Paddleboarding

-One day late for our Maple Canyon trip

-Loads of playing/swimming/summering

Some of those things we tried to make up for by rescheduling- like the Pizza Party and the Summer Range (minus the Haderlies) but some we just missed out on. The night that we were supposed to be camping at the Summer Range our kids were SO sad that we decided to set up the tent and sleep outside. We weren't throwing up anymore but were pretty sure that we were still contagious - so David stayed inside and the kids and I slept outside. 

Things like that happen. Kids get sick and families pass it around - but it was a bummer to end our summer with so much sickness. We were at my parents house after the Walker Family Reunion when Caleb started throwing up and when I came in to tell my mom, she immediately pulled me into a hug and expressed how sorry she was because she knew how tired I was and how hopeful I was that we were on the road to being healthy. (I'm grateful for my mom.) We ended up quarantining for this past week, the last week of Summer, because we NEED to get healthy before school starts. I especially feel that way because Jenna is having her baby this week and we are watching the Haderlie kids. I don't want them to get sick from us and take it back to their baby! 

A few other things: When we were on our way back from Colorado I started coming down with a sinus cold. I didn't realize it at the time- I had just sneezed a few times but mostly felt fine. However, when we were descending on the airplane into Salt Lake I suddenly felt a huge pressure behind my right eye and heard a "pop". Immediately I felt a shooting pain all the way from my right temple wrapping around my eye. I gasped and put my head down trying to breathe deeply, thinking that a blood vessel had popped or something even more awful. My hypochondriac ran through a thousand horrible options, most of which ended up with me in the emergency room. But by the time we were landing the pain had subsided to a dull ache and I felt better. It took a couple of days before the ache went all the way away, but after talking to some medically-minded people, I realized that my sinus-cold had already started and the pressure build up didn't have anywhere to go. I had the cold for the next week, but recovered and didn't have to go to the hospital for blood clots or anything horrible like that. It was just a crazy experience and I thought it was worth noting. 

I also mentioned above that both David and I got COVID tests this month. David did a whole separate Covid post but I thought it worth noting here that the Delta Variant of Covid has some different symptoms and sore throat is one of them. When David and I were sick we each had a family event scheduled soon after and we just wanted to be SURE that we wouldn't be transmitting Covid. Neither time did we really think we had Covid, but it was so nice to know that we wouldn't get other people sick. 

At this point in time David is ALMOST better from his awful sore throat/cold. The kids have the occasional cough but are mostly healthy. I'm crossing my fingers and sanitizing our whole house in the hopes that we are finally past all the sickness. Of the past 30 nights I've only slept in our bed about 5 of them, whether that was because I was with a sick kid, trying not to get David sick, trying not to get sick FROM David, or because we were gone camping/with family.  I'm so looking forward to a full week of sleeping in my bed and hope it happens soon! 

I'll end by again expressing gratitude for our health, for medical professionals and medicines to help us feel better, and for our home that takes such good care of us when we aren't feeling well. 

Croup

 Earlier this month Caleb woke up in the middle of the night not feeling well. His breathing was pretty labored and for a while I thought it was an athsma attack. We put him in a warm bath, used eucalyptus on his chest, and David gave him a blessing. Even after he finally fell asleep I stayed in his bed and slept with my face right next to his for the rest of the night to make sure that he was breathing okay. I kept telling myself that I would call the doctor FIRST thing in the morning, but when he woke up he was fine. I watched him for the whole day, then just hoped that it was a one-time thing. But that night, after only 30 minutes of being asleep his breathing started becoming more labored - so I called our after-hours instacare and set up an appointment for that night. 

They were immediately confident that it was croup- a textbook case (which was funny how relieved I was to have it be diagnosed NOT-covid, even though croup is pretty scary). Poor guy fell asleep right on the examination table - but they were able to give him some steroids and told me that they were glad I brought him in because the second night was usually worse than the first. They said that after that it usually turns to a nasty cold that lasts about two weeks. 

I asked how contagious croup is and the doctors answer for tips of how to keep it from spreading to my other kids had me shaking my head thinking "yeah - everyone in my house is going to get this." The person I was worried the most about was Lucy, but thankfully she only got a stuffy nose for a couple of days. In fact, all of the kids just got small colds and were mostly fine within just a few days. 

I, however, got the brunt of it. I didn't feel well for the next three weeks. Not dramatically-awful. Just an exhausted, achy, sneezy, low-energy several weeks. I'm finally feeling slightly better, but man. I guess sleeping with your face RIGHT in the breath of someone sick with croup is NOT a good idea. I'm glad that it wasn't worse and that we are all on the mend. 

(And by glad, I mean incredibly grateful to Heavenly Father. When I realized it was croup and that it could have been VERY dangerous I felt awful for not just taking Caleb in to the ER the first night. It's so hard to know how serious something is in the middle of the night. Also SO grateful for modern medicine.)