When you have a sick kid you inevitably acquire a sick family. You try your best to keep the one contained but it. is. so. difficult.
Imagine sleeping peacefully. You’ve just drifted into a dream full of wine, the finest chocolates, and that hunk that’ll be in the next movie thriller. THEN all of a sudden you are ripped from his arms by the sound of your child chunking it up somewhere in the house. You stumble out of bed in the hopes that he’s made it to the toilet only to slip in the hallway and fall on your butt because, while he EVENTUALLY made it to the toilet, he didn’t quite make it from the beginning.
We have all been here. We know this situation all to well and we also know what it leads to. For my family it was a 3 week long process that took a lot of meds, A LOT of Lysol, and a lot of rest (among other things.)
That first story was me and our middle child. It happened on a Monday night. The next morning he woke up with a raging fever of 102.4. I immediately took him to the doctor. The results were in. Strep AND the flu. OMG. The flu. I can handle strep but the FLU?! As a parent, getting told by the doctor that your kid has the flu is like getting your death sentence handed to you. I immediately went into overdrive. After my husband got home from work I got our son’s meds and hit up the cleaning aisle of HEB. I bought a few cans of Lysol and Clorox wipes. I was in control. I followed my son around for 2 days with that can of Lysol. After his fever broke I started washing everything and throwing away toothbrushes.
Thursday morning comes, and I notice our little one (almost 2 years) is warm. “Oh God” I think to myself. “Please no”. However, he seems fine and the fever was barely lingering on 99.1. So I gave him some Tylenol and a nap. I then welcomed our oldest home off the bus from first grade. He comes through the door and my heart sinks. He looks like death. I take his temperature and it’s another staggering 102.something. At this time it’s too late to go to the doctor but I’m able to make an appointment for Friday morning.
<————- DEATH
The next day I make my husband stay home with our middle kid and I load up the other two and head to the doctor. We get seen SEMI-quickly and the boys get tested. She comes in to tell me that they both have the flu and our youngest has a double ear infection AND some weirdo eye infection going on (hence the gigantic amount of goop coming out of this tear ducts). While she’s telling me this, kid number three sneezes. Not only does he sneeze but he sneezes directly into my open MOUTH while I happen to be asking a question. Seriously?! How rude, right?! The doctor looks directly into my sad eyes and says “prepare yourself. You have now been infected with the flu”. Insert copious amounts of curse words coming out of my mouth.
<———Weird eye thing going on. IDK, I’m not a doctor.
Before I, personally, succumbed to the sickness, I was able to get all of their meds and get them situated to begin the healing process. I only had about 12 hours before I fell victim to the symptoms.
Saturday early AM came and I woke up to feeling freezing, achey, and shaking like crazy. I got myself into an urgent clinic place and to no surprise had the flu.
So there we were. Four of us. Condemned to the house. Struggling to make it through the day. I was struggling the most due to having to be the main caretaker. Don’t get me wrong. My husband helped a ton. But when you’re Mom, you’re Mom and no one can replace Mom. It was rough folks.
Let me tell you, though. We survived. And to my complete astonishment, I somehow was able to rid our house of the flu virus before my husband got it. If keeping your husband from getting the flu while FOUR people in his immediate household have it isn’t worthy of some sort of peace prize then I don’t know what is.
All I know is that when your family is ravished with one of the “yuckiest” sickness around you fight like hell. You fight to avoid it and you fight to get rid of it. And if spending $8,000 on Lysol products does the trick then that is your answer.
P.S. I did not spend that much on Lysol. It’s fairly cheap. Plus, coupons.
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