what have we been up to?

What have we been up to?


Influenza B.

Yup, that's right folks, three of three have influenza B.
(I am obviously a poet folks.)

It started Monday night. Kids came back from supper at grandmas and we had our scheduled chiropractor appointment. All went went, we came home, did baths and bedtime routines. Jace woke up in the middle of the night around 2am with a migraine. This is nothing new, he gets migraines, has since about age 5. If we catch them early enough, they're easily treated with ibuprofen and acetaminophen. But he kept telling me it wasn't bad and kept trying to go back to sleep. He was on the floor of my room per usual, and around 3am he woke and it was really bad. So we went out into the living room and opened the porch door for the cool air(which this week was below zero but it helps him) and shut the lights off and tried to talk him through until the pain medicine came through. Finally around 5am he fell back asleep on the couch and I crawled back to bed until the alarm went back off at 630am. Alarm goes off and I try and try to wake him up and since we both had crappy sleep, he didnt wanna get up either. Mornings of school, is like pulling teeth to get my kids up so this is normal. Hes protesting going to school, but I tough loved him and sent him on his way. About 930am I get a phone call(Tuesday) that he has a headache, and I explained I gave him medicine before school and there wasn't alot I could do for him, try to have him stay a bit longer, see how it goes. We've been down this path before. Another hour passes, another phone call, so I picked him up. I figured he was just overtired and had what I call "migraine hangover" type of deal. So he actually came home and napped. Right then I should have figured something was up but...he didnt have a fever or any other complaints. So I had called my mom to tell her about this, and she said "I bet he's getting that flu"..and I shrugged it off and thought not much of it.

Wednesday came and he was still complaining of a headache. I thought to myself "Ok we'll let him sleep in a little and perhaps take him in a half day". He spent most of the morning sleeping and lounging and didn't really perk up much. Then around lunch time he was nauseated and I figured it was because he just didn't really rehydrate the way he should have with everything going on. So he stayed home from school all day. He ate supper Wed night and things seemed to be looking up. We all did the bedtime routine and sent the kids off to bed.

Thursday rolled around. Still no fever, complaints of a headache and he had a lunch party that day at school and he said "well I think I'll stay home and then go for lunch" and I told him he either goes all day or none, because now its his THIRD day off of school and he should really try to go back. We argued back and forth on this, Me, being mom, tough loving him into the car with his backpack, with much dismay from his side of the car. I had given him headache medicine and some breakfast and a peptalk and I dropped his sister off first for a change and he was flipping out about how he still didn't feel good and I took him home. He puked on the steps..poor kid. He came in, gave me this "I told you so" type glance and went to lay down.

I'm a nurse, so I"m not a panicker. If I let every little thing go, my kids would be babied up the behind. My 5 year old daughter Bella, likes bandaids for EVERYTHING. Thinks everything is life threatening and will drama the heck out of things. So I kinda tough love her because I know with her, if I take it too seriously, we'll really have something on our hands. With my youngest who is just 4, he doesn't complain much, doesn't cry much so when he does cry or complain, I know that its serious. With Jace, it can go either way. Sometimes he just doesn't want to go to school, because he doesn't like Math or whatever he's having that day. He's 9 and apparently thinks staying home is MUCH more fun sometimes. But my rule is if you stay home, you stay in your room in your bed, because sick is sick.

So I decided to take him to urgent care, get him checked out. Maybe something was brewing I was missing. In schools there are so many things going around, and I dont like to rush the kids to the doc for every little thing. If you know anything about nurses, I find this true about my nurse friends and their kids. So onto urgent care, where I met with the doctor and the nurse and I explained his history and current symptoms. They did a strep test, that was negative, his lungs were clear and they decided to test for influenza which the doc said she didnt think he had given everything she had seen and heard but might as well try.

Positive for Influenza B.
 So they gave the poor boy some potent meds for his lingering headache and ordered us Tamiflu, the recommended drug for influenza and said he's not to return to school until tuesday.
Ok. Stopped at the pharmacy, got him some lunch, his favorite which he barely touched, and came home for another nap/rest.
Later that night, my youngest started coughing, was congested. I thought OH LORD . So I debated "do I take HIM in now?" and another nurse friend said I should call the doc on call and tell him and hopefully he'll just give the pharmacy a call for meds for him as well. After a bit of a battle with the phone nurse the doctor gladly prescribed my youngest the same thing.

I should have frequent flier miles at the pharmacy.
This morning, my daughter woke up, same symptoms, so we got another prescription.
We're all house bound for 5 days.
House.Bound.....FIVE DAYS PEOPLE.
If I come out of this with all my hair... I"ll post an update.