Sickies

Man, we have had a rough month for illness around our house. In fact its really been since September! Such is life with two kids at ages 4 and 1.5 who put everything in their mouth - the cleanliness factor is not so high. We also switched daycares in July from a home based provider who had her 3 kids and 1 other kid to a center that has probably 80 kids. The amount of exposure to different germs is much higher now. Our immune systems are weak after fighting one cold after another.

This past few weeks was really bad though. After returning from a work trip to SF (flying with a head cold) I ended up in Urgent Care on a Sunday morning due to having been in tears the night before with so much sinus pressure. She told me I had major inflammation in my sinus and that I didn't have an infection. She prescribed 3 days of Prednisone (40 mg) and a referral to an ENT. On Wednesday I saw the ENT who confirmed the inflammation, but also said I had a major sinus infection which was causing pressure on my ear drum and causing me to feel like I couldn't hear. He continued the Prednisone for an additional 12 days on a taper, added 30 days of an antibiotic 2x a day, 30 days of Mucinex 2x  a day, a nasal steroid, a nasal rinse 2x a day, and a moisturizer gel for my sinuses since all this was pretty much going to dry me out. I have a follow up with him early January.

Meanwhile both kids seemed to have a similar head cold. Friday that week, Ryan was sent home from daycare because he had these horrible blisters in his mouth inside his cheek. The nurse said that hand, foot and mouth (oral only) was going around and what to expect and how to keep him comfortable. Ironically, I also ended up with the same blisters inside my mouth. Fortunately, neither him or I got the high fever commonly associated with this.

On Monday, Ellie got sick at daycare - she continued to puke through the evening. She couldn't go to school the next day, but we felt it best to keep her home anyways since she was so dehydrated and Ryan stayed home too. We tried to send the kids back to school on Wednesday, key word is tried. Ellie was sent home with a 102 degree fever and Ryan had green goop coming out of his eyes. A trip to the doctor and Ellie was diagnosed with the hand, foot and mouth virus that Ryan and I had although limited blisters, but the high fever and Ryan was given drops to help his eyes. We kept the kids home on Thursday again just to be safe and they returned on Friday to school.

With the holidays and Jared trying to use his PTO we determined to keep the kids home for 2 weeks from school to hopefully build up their immune system so that when they return to school that they have some antibodies to fight off these colds. Jared worked Monday before Christmas eve and we were all off the rest of the week. Monday and Tuesday I'll be at home with the kids, Wednesday were all off for the New Year holiday and Thursday and Friday Jared will be at home.

Hopefully we can make it past the first week before we see signs of the next cold.