Thursday, March 31, 2011

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!)

9 comments:

Tara R. March 31, 2011 at 6:53 PM  

I was very smug about my kid staying well too, then he got strep, then a sinus infection, then a double ear infection ... during his Spring Break. The kid was sick for two weeks.

I hope Mister Man is feeling better very soon.

(19 degrees!? That is so wrong on March 31.)

Susie March 31, 2011 at 7:21 PM  

I am so sick and tired of everyone being sick and tired!

Heather March 31, 2011 at 9:00 PM  

oh that picture of him breaks my heart! i hope you guys are all up and running soon! i hate this time of year-- it shifts everything and makes everyone sick!

Lisa Noel April 1, 2011 at 8:28 AM  

Man that sucks. We have been fairly healthy this year. Just one strep and a couple 24-48 hour bugs. Not perfect but much better than the 5 or 6 boughts of strep from last year.

Jen U April 1, 2011 at 9:49 PM  

Aww, Meow is keeping him company. Kitties are so great.

I can't believe you're not all better yet, that stinks so much. GET WELL SOON!!!

septembermom April 2, 2011 at 9:03 PM  

My Joe just threw up this evening. I thought that we were done for a while too. Hope you all get better soon.

Michelle April 3, 2011 at 9:47 PM  

Tara - Ummmm yep. On all counts. I'm too beat down emotionally to do more!

Susie - Amen! That's exactly it.

Heather - So sweet though, no? And he actually wasn't asleep - just in a daze, so the picture disturbed him. Poor kid!

Lisa - Definitely better than 5 or 6 steps, yuck!

Jen - You know the kitties are right with him. It took a long time. He was almost 48 hours of hanging out in the bed, not reading, not watching a movie, not doing ANYthing but laying there or sleeping. He had 2 hours before I took him to the doctor.

Kelly - oh NO! It has to get better soon. It *has* to!

Pat April 4, 2011 at 12:48 PM  

I am so sorry to hear how sick Mr. Man has been, and you, too. Twenty-four hours of lying in bed--wow! I think I only had that once when my youngest had chicken pox at 15 months of age and he was very sick and very feverish for several days.

Here's hoping for a rapid recovery and back-to-normal soon for Mr. Man!

Michelle April 21, 2011 at 8:34 PM  

Pat - Thank you. He's totally back to normal now, but it was thisclose to 48 hours of not doing anything but hanging out in bed. VERY unlike him. Let's hope that was the end of it!

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