Don't Germs Go Away In Spring?

It's spring. I know it is. The calendar says so, and I got the email from a friend of mine announcing that we're ready to start booking our spring girls night out. It has to be spring, right? Forget the 19 degrees when I woke up this morning. I'm simply pretending that doesn't exist.

Because you know what? I'm done with winter. I'm done with being stuck inside. I'm done with no sun. I'm done with snowpants and hats and scarves and winter jackets. And most of all, I'm done with sicknesses.

We got through the majority of the winter relatively unscathed. Sure my husband (an almost two decade teacher, mind you) got illness after illness early this fall, but that was an aberration; he never gets sick anymore (we'll ignore the nasty cold he has right now, too). We'll ignore all Little Miss's issues, as those were caused by an ill-fated attempt at reintroducing dairy this fall.

Mister Man and I? We sailed right on through the winter, laughing at the germs that tried to catch us and failed. We didn't have so much as a sniffle. Then March hit. Mister Man came home on a Monday, telling me he had strep. Since he's successfully diagnosed himself twice before - the only other two times he's had strep, mind you - I took him straight to the doctor, and lo and behold, he had strep. No worries, that's what antibiotics are for. I expected him to be home with me on Tuesday but fine the next day.

Ehhhh, not so much. He got a fever Tuesday night that didn't really leave until Saturday afternoon. Even after three days on antibiotics, he still had a 103.5 degree fever. That said, I was extremely grateful that his strep didn't come the next week (two weeks ago, in real time) when we were headed for Florida for the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration and then a week of spring break. Everyone was healthy for that. It was awesome - sun, warmth, and no germs.

This week hasn't been so ... lucky. One of the girls in our carpool stayed home Monday - the first day back from spring break - because she had a sore throat and swollen lymph nodes and just generally felt icky. (Thank you to her mom for keeping her home even though there was no fever!) Spring break is when all the germs are supposed to go away. Everyone is out of school and away from people who are passing things around all day in the close quarters of the classroom. When we come back, the strep being passed from child to child is magically gone.

Or so the theory goes.

I got a call from the school nurse yesterday around 2pm. It didn't start with the usual, "Hi, Mister Man is fine!" greeting that I get when the school calls. My stomach sank immediately. He had complained of chills, and when the nurse took his temperature, it was 101.5 (he was fine that morning, promise!).

I quickly learned that he was the last child standing in his row in first grade. All the other students in his row had already come down with the fever virus. It was Tuesday mid-day after spring break, and already five other children were home sick. Yikes!

I headed down to pick him up, and he was sound asleep in the nurse's office by the time I arrived to pick him up. I carried him out to the car. (Oh, what a cute picture that would make, said one passing teacher to another as I passed them in the hallway - especially with Little Miss carrying his coat and backpack for me - while internally I groaned that this was most assuredly not the kind of cute picture I wanted memorialized.)

He went straight up to bed when I got him home, eschewing dinner. When I checked on him twenty minutes later - before I went upstairs to go to bed because I had a splitting headache and could feel a fever coming on - he was sound asleep.

Welcome to FeverPukefest 2011 in our household.

My plans last night were summarily canceled, and I still feel like a truck ran over me. Fortunately, my headache is now gone, my fever is mostly gone, and the puking has ceased. (Thank the skies, as I don't ever throw up and hate hate hate it!) Mister Man woke up at midnight to have a few Cheerios, but went back to bed immediately.

This morning, he slept until 10am. His fever was up to 103 again. He is showing no interest in food or drink, although I've been able to feed him a little applesauce and oyster crackers and rice cereal - and water, of course. He's not going to school again tomorrow, as he's now spend the last twenty-four hours in bed, showing no desire to leave it.

So seriously, Spring? Wherever you are, please come fast. I am not doing any more illnesses this year. I'm done! (Although I would again like to express my appreciation for the ten days of health we had while on vacation - I am very, very grateful for that!)