To say we've been sick around here is an understatement. I know I promised a post about Scotland, you might be wondering what is new with Chris, Jayce or baby and I, and the truth is that this round of sickness took everything over and we are just finally emerging from it, wondering what happened to the last few weeks of our lives.
I debated about whether or not this was worthy of a post of it's own, but decided that it is worth remembering these crazy few weeks in our lives, just in case it ever gets this bad again. We can remember that we made it through and can push forward.
Where to begin?
Okay, here, the nebulizer. This trip to the doctor (the 3rd for Jayce in as many weeks) sent us home with 3 more prescriptions, (in addition to the 2 of the previous visits), which included nebulizer treatments. The doctor, (not ours, we couldn't get in to see him anytime soon) sent him home with a "Hail Mary" course of medication, with an "I don't know why his cough keeps getting worse and he still has a fever, let's just put him on everything and see if any of it works out" diagnosis. Not my favorite. I scheduled a follow up visit with his actual doctor for Monday just in case things continued not to improve.
While Jayce did not enjoy the nebulizer, he didn't hate it either. He didn't like the mask so eventually I just let him hold the little steam canister and had the steam blowing in his face instead. We pretended like it was an ice cream cone that we were licking and talked about the different flavors of that we were eating, what sort of toppings were on it, etc. We pretended it was a microphone and sang into it. Jayce pretended it was a horn. I used every trick that I could think of to try to keep the steam close enough to his nose and mouth to do some good.
The day after Jayce's not-so-helpful-doctor's visit, Chris became so sick that he finally conceded to seeing the doctor, something he never does. (He's one of those, "I'll kick it with orange juice" people.) He had been coughing and choking for a few days, was on his third day of having a fever and the chills that he just couldn't shake, but was still going to work as normal, so he was a mess by the time he got home. The fever and chills didn't go away until the 5th or 6th day, which is a pretty rough stretch. And he had bronchitis.
The day of his doctor's appointment, I noticed that he had his running clothes set out. I put them away when he wasn't looking, thinking that I'd force him into coming home to rest at the end of the day. Instead, he stopped by after his dr appointment to pick them up. The appointment where the doctor told him that he had bronchitis.
"But didn't the doctor say that your lungs sounded like you were breathing through a straw? Sooo...did you tell him you were planning to go running?"
"No, I didn't tell him that. And he just said that it sounded like I had bronchitis. And it's only 3 miles."
This is the kind of logic that I'm dealing with when I'm trying to get my boys healthy.
All along I could tell that I was getting sick too, but I pushed it to the back of my mind because I didn't really have time to be sick, and I kept thinking that I didn't sound as bad as either of the boys. (I understand that this logic is not amazing either.) Towards the end of the week my cough was getting much worse and was wearing me out, so I decided to go in on a Saturday and see the doctor who was in that day. Chris and Jayce both had bronchitis, along with whatever else, so I was sure that I probably did too. She told me the following un-helpful things.
"Well, you definitely have bronchitis, and I'll give you a prescription for a z-pack. But I wouldn't start taking it unless you start feeling worse, because it's not good for the baby".
"But then if you take it and feel a bit worse, you need to come back. You are at a really high risk for your bronchitis to turn into pneumonia, partially because you have athsma and also because you're pregnant and your immune system is already really low."
Regarding me asking about Chris being on his 5th day of having a fever: "Well, he should probably go to the ER or Urgent Care for a chest x-ray. But he really needs to get that checked out, especially since it's not good for you or the baby to be around him if he's like that."
"You really just need to be resting as much as possible."
I also discovered that I had lost about 6-8 pounds in the 2 weeks since I had last been harrassed by my OB.
I went home and cried.
It was pretty bad with the whole family being so sick all at the same time. It was more than us all just having bad cold symptoms. Chris and I were both completely fatigued and felt like we just needed to be laying down, because we did just need to be laying down, but Jayce was on a bit of an upswing so he obviously needed some interaction. We argued over who felt worse so that the other would go to the grocery store. (I won, because I felt horrible and was pregnant.) We all slept through Jayce's entire extended nap time. We got take out from every place in town because neither of us could stand to be standing long enough to cook. We thought Jayce was better until he came running to Chris that afternoon and cried, "Dad, my ear hurts!!" and then cried unconsolably for 20 minutes while we did everything that we could think of to comfort him until the Advil kicked in. That was a bad weekend.
For me personally, being pregnant while this sick added insult to injury in a major way. I couldn't sleep because I couldn't breathe through my nose, and the deep breathing that is required to fall/stay asleep sent me into regular coughing fits. Because of the pregnancy I couldn't take any medicine that would help with the coughing or congestion, so I slept sitting up. Which was bad for my poor pregnancy bladder, and even worse for my poor sciatic nerve. Instead of "resting up," I slept for 4-6 hours a night, and Chris and I kept each other awake with our alternating coughing fits.
There is more, but I'll just stop there and just say thank God we got through it! A few incredibly kind people brought us dinner. A few sweet ladies had play dates so that Jayce could run around with his friends and I could rest. We saw our own doctor, who had re-assuring words, discovered our additional infections, and prescribed medication that helped. He told me that it would take a while for me to feel better since my immune system was already so low and he couldn't put me on anything very strong. But I started being able to sleep for longer periods of time a few nights later, so I was just grateful to be on my way back to being healthy, even if it was one tiny step at a time.
We are all finally off of our meds and happy to be back among the living. Whew!
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