June Bugs

No sooner had school ended, Audrey and the rest of us came down with one of the worst super bugs-- a nasty strain of rhinitis, the common cold-- I have seen in my life.  Poor Audrey was struck down first.

Our next dilation was scheduled for the first week in June in Boston.  I took her to the pediatrician when she first was sick, to check to see if the infection was in her lungs and it was not.  Still, her post nasal drip cough was keeping her up at night horribly, to the point that Justin and I tried the Combivent out of desperation to see if it might give her some relief, and to our suprise (and some dismay) it seemed to help quite a bit.  The morning of our flight, we had spent all night comforting Audrey through her coughing and she had been on the Combivent for 24 hours, so I called the anesthesia team in Boston and we agreed it was time to reschedule.  In spite of my hesitation, it all worked out to be very much for the best, because we all were sick as dogs for many many days. 3 year old Gideon became so sick that he had me scared for a day or two, and the doctor sent him for x rays in addition to prescribing nebulizer treatments to get him through the worst of the infection.

At the pediatrician with three out of my five. Both Gideon and Eden tested low oxygen and needed nebulizer treatments. Audrey has two ear infections but her O2 saturation and temp were fine. She is pointing at them as if to say "what gives? I usually get all the special stuff at the doctor!"

That was the most athletic doctor appointment ever. Audrey had a full out melt down for the last forty minutes of our two hour appointment, trying to bite and pull my hair while I was trying to listen to the doctor's instructions.  She was exhausted beyond all reason.  This bug really whomps the energy out of you... and out of me!  I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to get Gideon over for his lung xray, Audrey to her nap, and essential errands done. But at least I'm not on an airplane!

Later that day while waiting for Gideon's x ray and helping him in the bathroom, I had a nightmarish experience of getting a thick lump of junk caught in my airway and could neither breathe in nor cough it out for several seconds.  It was absolutely terrifying.  After all the exhaustion of that day, I wound up taking myself to the doctor that evening too.  We all took it easy for the next couple of weeks.

JUNE 12:
This has been a rough couple weeks... I'm going on thirteen snotty days of coughing all night with this stupid viral sinus infection, but thankfully Audrey is better and the other kids almost too, and I think I'm finally nearly done myself, this one hit me hard. Thankful for Justin's help and patience through my fatigue, he fixed meals and helped with kids and house without complaint. We all have been feeling better enough that we went to play at an awesome park in Pleasant Grove today and enjoyed free pizza thanks to one of the special needs clubs, United Angels, and tonight I drove to Salt Lake and back to pick up a new charger chord for Audrey's feeding pump thanks to the generous mom on the special needs Utah Kids board who had an extra. Probably my favorite moment from the past week though was playing Apples to Apples with the kids Sunday night. We each had to play a card from our hand that was the best match for the word Adorable, and hope the judge picked ours as the best match. JJ hadn't won a point yet in the game but he had the luck to get a "choose your own item" card that round and put it down saying confidently, "my little sister." We all groaned loudly and laughed, because everyone knew there was no hope beating that.