My Weekend... and Monday

Hello Everybody!

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend and maybe had the chance to check out the guest posts.  If not, make sure you do, it's a good read and good insight from my wonderful husband, C.

My weekend was quite the mixed bag, so I thought I'd tell you about it and let you know how today is going so far.

So first of all, Z started up his flag-football season (his first) this past week and H (who decided his third season was his last -- for a while), has been asked to be assistant coach this year.  I think it's a great opportunity for him and I know Coach will keep him active helping him run the drills at practice and stuff.

On Friday night, Z had his second practice of the season.  Meanwhile, H stayed home because he had been sick with general congestion and sicky-ness since the day before his birthday (sad, I know).  C and S didn't go to her teen group that night for some reason ... I'm still not clear on that story.

Anyway, Saturday morning, O woke up feeling a bit under the weather and he laid around almost the whole day.  I had a great second Bible study weekend where one particular question about "my identity," made me crumble into sad tears.  Oh, and I was PMSing, too, so that never helps the emotional factor.  All the ladies were worried about me and one of them prayed with me on the side (thanks, PH).  Good fun!

I raced home to get kids to dance class, but I was so over-emotional by that point that I couldn't see through blurred vision to get them there.  We missed class.

Later, C took the oldest two kids for some time together, while I stayed with O who didn't feel well and J and Z played with neighbor kids out front.  O was gradually getting worse and eventually, he was downright hot and feverish.  Great.

Of course, it was date night.  I felt bad, but I knew he was just going to continue resting.  So I put S in charge of regular medication for that fever and let Vanessa know what she was up against.  She said it was fine and that she wasn't feeling great either.  (At this point, I was feeling completely guilty about leaving a sick friend with our sick son, but she kept insisting, so we went.)

C and I had a great non-Paleo meal (celebration for completing the 30-day challenge) at the Nob Hill Bar and Grill.  We'd never been.  Next time, I'm so ordering what C had.  Mine was good and fine, but he let me finish the rest of his enormous and delicious Waygu beef burger.  Mmm!  That hit the spot.

After that we went to see a play being performed at the Aux Dog Theatre nearby.  The play was the story of (and by) Jonathan Larson, creator of the Broadway musical, Rent.  Both Rent and this play, tick, tick...BOOM! are definitely more appropriate for adults only (maybe mature late teens) because there is some foul language and the subject matter isn't always family-friendly.  But if you are able to see past those qualities, they are very good.

If you can't see Rent on stage, definitely get the DVD -- not the one made into a movie (that one was disappointing after seeing Rent live on stage three times), but the one they filmed before it went off Broadway.  It's a recording of the actual Broadway production.

The music is all very contemporary and the whole show deals with a lot of current-day problems (or problems of the 90's really, that continue into today), while still coming through with a positive message overall.  The same is true for tick, tick...BOOM!  I think I'd like to see the latter musical again with a different cast.  There are only three parts in the play and so for parts that require so much of the actors, I would have liked it better with stronger, more talented singers.  But, they held their own and got the story across, so it wasn't a complete disappointment either. 

Interestingly, we ran into someone we know from church at the theatre because I didn't realize he was the Assistant Director on this show.  He's usually an actor in a lot of local productions, but this time, he was one of the head honchos.  Very cool accidental run-in.

Anyway, so yes, C and I love going to the theatre -- or at least we used to BK (before kids).  We went a lot.  We were also usually involved with dramatic productions of our own at church or at the community college.  Love it.  We still get there sometimes with our kids, but it's not the same as a night out with just the two of us.  Usually we go to the matinee when the kids come, too.  Theatre is just a whole different experience in the evening.  It's somehow better in my opinion.  But this is the season of our lives right now.  We are matinee people.  It's better than losing out on theatre altogether.

Enough about that.

We came home and O was still really feverish, even with regular medication.  Vanessa was feeling worse and definitely ready to head home.  The kids were all up late, so we quickly put them to bed.

On Sunday, C left early to go sing at church as part of the worship leadership team.  Around 7:00, I could hear sadness from down the hallway.  O was awake (not that he got any sleep the night before) and moaning and crying.  He was miserable. 

I called him to me (as I was still lounging lazily in my bed) and felt his forehead and his neck and Oh. My. Goodness.  The kid was burning up hotter than I've ever felt him.  I helped him get some shoes on with his pajamas and let S know that I needed to take him to Urgent Care.  He was also complaining about his ears and his throat hurting.  I got him there when they first opened at 8:00.

O was not even himself.  He's usually so fearless and so active.  He was barely able to walk without tripping over himself and he was just doing that moaning cry the whole time.  Every chair he came across, he was curling up and wanting to stay put.  But I kept making him move with me through registration to the waiting room, from the waiting room to the exam room.  Once we were in the exam room, they had him sitting on the chairs first and then asked him to move up to the table.  The poor kid was beside himself every time he had to readjust.

Then they gagged him to test for strep.  He was screaming.  I know he's eight, but he's the baby of this family and not only that, he's seriously petite, so he seems a lot younger than he is.  In comparison, he's 46 pounds and four feet tall, while his two-month older sister, J, is about half a foot taller and 70 pounds.  Those are serious, not joking or sarcastic numbers.  Anyway, it's hard not to feel terrible when he's screaming and writhing around because they just so rudely jammed some swabs down his neck and he clearly doesn't feel well.  Poor baby!  I wanted to cry with him.

He'd had ibuprofen an hour before we got in to see the nurse or doctor and when they checked his temperature then, he was still 101.6.  So I know he had to be higher than that when I felt him first thing in the morning.  That was his temperature after ibuprofen helped bring the fever down a bit.

He tested positive for Strep.

So I spent most of Sunday hosing down everything in the house with Lysol.  We've never dealt with Strep in this household (my nieces come down with it pretty regularly), but I'd heard that the virus stays on surfaces for two days.  I made sure to get all the door knobs, light switches, phones, remote controls, stair rails, toilet flushers, sink faucets and knobs and anything else that seemed particularly prone to being handled.  Once I got all the surfaces cleaned, I started spraying the air Lysol in every room, too.  Just to be sure.

But I was too late.

By last night, both S and J had fevers.  J is slightly less sick than S, who had been put in charge of O's medication the night we went on our date.  This morning, S is worse and complaining about her throat pain.  J has throat pain and is also feverish.  So I made appointments for them with our pediatrician.

By the way, this all sounds fairly simple, but that required some shuffling of other responsibilities around.  K is sick and stayed home from school, so D left E with K.  I was still supposed to pick up L and N from school this afternoon, but the only appointment they had available for our girls was right when I'm supposed to be there.  So I had to call in a favor from a friend, KF, who thankfully had already offered to take our kids to the library class they have today (but now it's just H going and he's actually there now) and find out if she was able to pick up my nieces for me, too.  Of course, I confirmed this was fine with D, before I arranged all that.

Thankfully, she said yes.  God has blessed me recently with a couple of really helpful, wonderful friends and I'm so desperately in need of their help all the time!  So I really put that part of them to the test.  (Hi, want to be my friend?  Well, here's your to-do list for this week.  Thank you very much.)  But I try to repay them as best I can by helping them out, so it works out in the end.  Or at least C makes some delicious food and I invite them to partake in it with us.  That makes them happy, too.

I made eggs and toast for breakfast for all the kids.  Then, suddenly, I could no longer deny it.  I'm getting a sore throat.

You know, I've had this nagging pain in my right ear off and on for a week.  It's been pretty consistent the past three days.  But I'm the mama.  I really don't do well as the patient.  So I just push it off and pretend that the pain isn't real.

I don't believe I'm running a temp yet, but I can't deny the ear pain and now the throat pain anymore.  I scheduled an appointment for myself tomorrow morning (earliest they could get me in).

In the meantime, I've got to keep on spreading the Lysol love around this house.  Keep on demanding that sick kids stick to a single couch and if they must get up (to use the bathroom or whatever), they have to sanitize their hands before they touch anything, anywhere, on their way.  O's on medication now and so probably no longer contagious.  But H and Z still aren't sick with this.  Can we keep it this way?  And what about C?  Will this pass him by?

That reminds me.  H is still stuffy, but he's had no fever or sore throat, so he's back to regular duty.  My friend, Vanessa, had a temp of 103 last night.  She's seeing the doctor today.  Her youngest daughter came down with Croup according to the doctor today.  So... so far, 2013 isn't bringing much more health our way than did 2012. 

It's only February, let's hope things get better before too long.

Hey, by the way, it's Valentine's Week!  I have my cards, but have not yet filled them out.  My usual excuses apply.  Anyway, have a good week -- telling you now in case I get sicker before I can get back to this blog -- and happy Valentine's Day to you (in advance).