Monday, February 23, 2015

I heart Tamiflu


The second half of January was plagued by sickness for us. And then the majority of February as well.
It has sucked.
Poor David had it the worst of us, he was sick for nearly two weeks straight.
The rest of us got small reprieves in between viruses.

The last Thursday in January, David was home from work with what we thought was a nasty stomach bug (and learned later was Influenza A), and I had a cold, but the kids were healthy and we were pretty sure the end of illness was near, and the kids had managed to escape it all.
(what fools we were...)

Then I went to pick the kids of up from preschool Friday morning, and was in my van in the pick-up line (early) (which is rare), and the teacher brought my babies out to me, before school was even over. Turns out Abbey had just thrown up in class! Poor thing!! She felt miserable, and was so embarrassed she'd thrown up in front of her friends. My heart just broke for her. We quickly headed home, where she proceeded to spend the rest of the afternoon throwing up, coupled with a 103 temp. My poor baby.
 I finally drug myself to an Urgent Care that afternoon, and was diagnosed with bronchitis and an ear infection. I had 100.8 fever there. I may or may not have begged politely requested the Urgent Care doctor just admit me to the hospital, put me in a delightful little medicated coma, and just wake me when I and everyone in my family was healthy again.
She said no, but she would give me lots of cough syrup with codeine, which is a cheap but close second.
That same evening Luke was light-sabering around our living room with his usual fervor, and then randomly decided to lay down on the couch.
And promptly fell asleep.
Which has happened exactly never in that boy's lifetime.
I took his temp and was not surprised when it read 103.2. Bless his little heart, he had it too.
So. We've been hanging out around the house a lot lately. Recovering.
Luckily, these adorable kiddos have a vivid imagination...







Lots of jammies. Unlimited screen time. No regular meal times. Lots of toast.

 Because the twins got on Tamiflu the very day they started showing symptoms of the flu, they were feeling much, much better within 48 hours. *miracle drug*


But I was still down from the bronchitis, and Dave was still down from the flu, so we had to call in some reinforcements, AKA:Grandma.
David's mom came up on Saturday and spent the entire day caring for our kids so we could rest.
And rest we did!
Dave ended up taking a long nap, and I slept the entire day. Like ALL DAY LONG. I didn't even see my Mother-In-Law! I didn't wake up once in the entire 8 hours she was here. The night before I'd slept on the kids' bedroom floor (very loose use of the word "slept" just there) and with bronchitis as well, I was just exhausted.


The kids were grateful to have Gaga here to care for them, as were David and I =)








Whenever our entire family gets sick, the kids rebounded the quickest, which is always a blessing and a curse.
On the one hand you're so grateful your babies aren't miserable anymore...and on the other you're like "SHHHHHHH!!!" because you still feel like death.


Luckily, between a house full of dress-up clothes and toys, and Netflix streaming instantly, they managed to stay entertained...
 














The next Monday evening I went to work, only to throw up 1 hour into my shift...which meant facing the sad reality that I was not going to escape the flu like I'd thought.
Curse words flew out of my mouth as I asked one of the pediatricians I work for to write me an rx for Tamiflu. I started the med that night, and although I was positively miserable the next day, by Wednesday I was feeling much, much better. (Seriously what is in that stuff? Is it meth?!?)


I kicked the flu just in time for my bronchitis to come back in full force. I'm finishing off round two of antibiotics tomorrow, and David just finished his for pneumonia, (which his flu ended up turning into).
OH! And. AND!! Abbey got croup in there somewhere as well.
It's been a helluva month at our house.



It's nearly 60 degrees outside today (huge for Feb in Oregon!) so we've got all the windows open and are determined to get the germs outta this house FOR GOOD.
Grateful for Netflix, grateful for friends who will run to the pharmacy for you, grateful for apple juice, grateful for warm baths, grateful for grandmas, grateful for health insurance, good doctors, and good meds.

And grateful for the ability to keep twin 4 year olds entertained during so much illness...
we even pulled some old tricks out of our book, like glow-stick bath! (AKA: Baby Rave)



Here's to a Healthy Spring!



3 comments:

Aunt Carol said...

Surely, surely, surely March will be a healthier month for the Hoffman family. Hang in there!

Love,
Aunt Carol

Vanessa's Dad said...

Healthy Families is not exactly a fantasy... but it's a relative term (pun intended). In other words, families with young children can be relatively healthy for a relatively long period of time between illnesses... and that's as good as it gets.

Amanda, said her boys have been sick with sinus illness for days and weeks?

LOVE,
GRAND DAD

Amanda said...

We've been sick the second half of February. Coughing and snotty noses sick. I was feeling sorry for myself a bit but reading your post I know that, wow, you guys have had it bad. That sounds positively awful. I'm sorry I don't live closer and could help out. How lucky that you were able to easily get a prescription for Tamiflu without having to go wait and drag yourself to a waiting room. Praying the rest of the winter is kind to your family.