My mom always said if she could choose one person in the family to get sick it would be me. Not that she wanted me to. It's just that I was the perfect little patient. I locked myself in my room and didn't come out until I felt better; never asked for anything, never whined. Well, Dak caught a cold three weeks ago. No big deal right? When my kids get colds they get a runny nose and cough like crazy. Does that slow them down? No, not one bit, much to my dismay. But not this time. We should have had a HUGE "out of order" sign on our front door over the last few weeks.
I'm not one that rushes to the doctor every time my child spikes a fever. It takes a lot to get me to go in. Maybe it's the doctor blood running through my veins. My dad was the same way. Once my brother fell out of the tree house and hurt his leg. My mom wanted to take him in but my dad said "Aww, he's fine." She took him in for x-rays a few days later. Sure enough, BROKEN.
So Dak got bad, FAST! He had high fevers, slept all day, and coughed all night. Seriously, I've never seen anyone cough as much as he did. He couldn't talk, eat, or do anything. I had to carry him from room to room. We went to the doctor and she immediately sent us to the hospital. He had pneumonia. Dak was a trooper (at first)! He was hooked up to a million different things and had what seemed like constant breathing , pounding and shaking treatments. Poor baby had six IV's in the five days he was there. Fortunately, he doesn't remember a whole lot of it; too traumatizing I guess.
While Dak and Reese and/or my mother-in-law were in the hospital I was at home taking care of the rest of us sickies, me included. We had strep throat, pink eye, ear infections, you name it we had it. We were all on antibiotics but getting worse. And why was that one might ask? We had something called mycoplasma. You catch it just like you would a cold, but regular antibiotics won't treat infections caused by it. After our medications were switched we started getting better, slowly. Our house was like regular pharmacy. Kids were passed out all over the place with cool wet rags over their foreheads.
Just after Dak got home, Rook started getting worse. Same story. He had a temperature of 104 when we got to the hospital. Still there actually. I'm rocking Rook now. I can't wait to hold him sans tubes and wires coming from every appendage. The good news is I just found out that Tay might have a serious urinary tract infection that can only be treated through an IV. GREAT! What next?
Seriously though, this month has been awful awful awful. Watching your children suffer has got to be the hardest thing in the world. But, I know we go through these kinds of things for our own learning and growth. And, I am very grateful we had the means and resources to get our children healthy again. I'm also thankful for the power of priesthood blessings and a fantastic mother-in-law (she got sick too) and friends that have helped us through this. Now that we've reached our out of pocket maximum for the year Reese can get that back surgery he's been needing!
This is Dak at the doctor's office. Reese has all the good hospital pics on his phone.
Rook just after his IV was put in
He didn't smile for over a week.
Tigue (little rascal) never got sick! Amazing. They shared a crib before all this. No longer my little friends. Our nurse held Tigue while I went down the hall to shower. She had a nice BIG blowout all over the nurse. Nice! She got to sport a hospital gown the rest of the night. It was interesting. Rook's spirits seemed a little brighter when she was around.
I think we've all seen enough of the hospital for a good LONG time.
