The FLU

I was finally getting caught up on this blogging thing and then the flu among other illness hit our house. Super Bowl Sunday I spiked a fever after having a cough for 4 days.  Marlie started running a high temp the next day.  In the middle of that week (the day before Lyla’s first birthday) I was diagnosed with bronchitis.  Poor Lyla spiked a high fever on her first birthday.  The day after her birthday she had a temp of close to 103 and Marlie was still running a temp.  We went to the pediatrician and found out that all 3 of us had the flu.  It’s so awful having sick children and being sick on top of it is even worse.  I really wanted to just lay in bed but that was out of the question.  I had two very sick little girls to take care of.  That evening James went to the walk in clinic and found out he had an ear infection.  To add to all the illnesses I sliced my thumb while cutting up chicken for homemade chicken noodle soup.  I was so glad it was the weekend and that I would have James home to help. 

    

Unfortunately, Lyla’s temperature went up to 104.5 that Sunday so we took her to the pediatrician’s emergency hours.  She wasn’t eating any solid foods by this point and wasn’t drinking very many liquids.  The Dr. told me that it was still the flu and to keep her hydrated.  Thankfully, by this point Marlie and I were recovering and almost back to 100%.  Two days later, Lyla was so much worse.  Her temperature was still in the 103-104.5 range and motrin or tylenol weren’t helping it to go down.  She wasn’t eating or drinking anything, was so lethargic that she couldn’t keep her eyes open or lift her head off my shoulder, and cried all through the night and during the day.  Keep in mind that since she was diagnosed with the flu she hadn’t slept a full night or a full nap and wouldn’t let me put her down at all.  I made breakfast, lunch, and dinner while holding her.  I put Marlie to bed while holding her.  I even went to the bathroom while holding her.  I just couldn’t let her scream when I sat her down.  My body ached from sitting on the couch all day and from being a pillow to Lyla.  I ended up taking her to the Dr. for the third time in four days.  The Dr. was afraid she was getting dehydrated so he told me to take her to the ER for IV fluids.  That was not a pleasant experience at all help!! 

          

The ER was packed with screaming kids and was so hot inside.  Luckily, we only waited about 15 minutes in the waiting room before we were moved to a make shift treatment area.  They had hospital beds down a quiet hall with room dividers between them that we sat on.  We were just thankful we didn’t have to wait very long to get treated and didn’t care about being in the middle of the hallway.  The nurse was so nice and the Dr. was even nicer.  Lyla screamed every time they checked her temperature, checked her ears, listened to her chest, and basically touched her in any way.  Her temperature was so high that she had to have motrin and an hour later have tylenol.  The first attempt to put the IV in her hand didn’t go so well.  I was holding her in my lap and trying to keep her completely still while she was screaming and flailing.  The vein blew out so they had to try it in her foot.  Thank goodness the second attempt worked.  After the IV started she fell right asleep on her daddy.  The nurse had to glue a bag to her bottom to catch her pee and make sure the fluids were working and to do a urine test to make sure she didn’t have a UTI.  After an hour of IV fluids she hadn’t peed so they did another 30 minutes.  After she finally peed the worse part of the night was when the nurse took the bag off.  Poor baby, had already been through so much that night.  We got home around 1am and Lyla slept all night.  She seemed to have a little more energy the next day and we were so glad we had gotten the fluids in her. 

Waiting in the waiting room of the ER

Watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on daddy’s phone

     

Right after the IV was hooked up.  She then woke up and wanted daddy to hold her.

     

Slept on daddy for over an hour.

Two days later our sweet Lyla is sitting at the table for dinner and smiling. 

Less then three weeks after the girls and I were recovered from the nasty flu James spiked a fever in the middle of the night.  I quarantined him to our room and would not let the girls go anywhere near him.  We found out he had the flu and bacterial bronchitis.  While he was sick Lyla had a temp of 103 and an ear infection. 

We have had a rough month and a half and are looking forward to warm weather.  After this brief period of being sick we are very grateful that we have two very healthy children.  We know that there are so many families that have children with cancer and other diseases and can’t imagine what they go through.  It was so hard seeing our girls sick with the flu and pray every day that they don’t endure anything more than that.

After reading this long update you now know why I’m so behind on updating.  I will work on catching up on the things that have happened since the flu hit our house.