Tales of the flu

Well, my little darling girl woke up at 4 AM with 103.2. Obviously she was not going to school, but I made a quick decision to take her to the doctor since it is Friday (like I mentioned yesterday). I thought for sure she had strep.  High fever, cough, belly hurting on and off.  And she was a wreck this morning.  Freezing cold, no appetite...

So, after we waited 30 minutes to see our doc (who we love), she ruled out strep or pnemonia.  She thought that her cough and drippy nose was totally unrelated to the fever.  So, she prescribed antibiotics for her nose situation because it was likley bacterial. Moving on, she causally mentioned that we could swab her for the flu, just to rule it out.  I said ok, even though it is slightly invasive.

She held her feet and I held her arms and she tried (unsuccessfully) to get a swab from her nose.  My daughter was SCREAMING and FLAILING and SOBBING uncontrollably.  I figured, if we were getting an antibiotic anyhow, whats the point in forcing her to get a swab taken?  BUT, the doc said the point is to know if she has the flu or not in an effort to be able to treat my other two children before they may catch it.  Okay, that seemed like a good enough reason.  Enter nurse as 3rd set of arms to hold her down and just imagine a not pretty site.  Poor babygirl.

Since the swab usually takes 10 minutes to read, I suggested she just write out all the prescriptions like if it were positive and to call me and tell me whether or not to fill them.  My daughter (and I) were more than ready to get home after that drama and being there for an hour at that point. She was still shaking. Ugh.
But, by the time she went to write the scripts, she came back saying it was a strong positive already and that she definitely has the flu.  Boooo. Booooooo.  Mommy no like.  This is a first in our household.  And hopefully a last.  And no, my kids did not get a flu shot/mist this year.  I think I thought about it for a moment, but the moment fleeted by and it never re entered my mind.  I guess with no insane media converage about how every place is "running out" of the shot, I just blanked on it.   So, I suppose it is my fault that she caught the flu.

I dropped her off at home with my hubby and baby girl and spent the next few hours waiting for prescriptions for all of us (please god let them work), getting her a requested lunch that she had two bites of, getting her a requested ice cream that she ate 2 bites of, and picking up my oldest from school an hour early to get the meds in him as quickly as possible... all in freezing cold rain. 

I was warned that the tamiflu can cause vomitting. But no one in my house is really a vomitter so I excused that nonsense information out of my brain.  And now, I am sitting down at the computer for the first time today (been up since 4 AM).  I just finished giving said sick child a bath because she just puked for the 2nd time all over herself, the bathroom floor, the bathroom walls, and me. Nice.  Perhaps the cure is worse than the illness?  Who knows.  I will tell you that I am NOT a fan of pukers, puking, any of it.  And the poor girl was crying that she was so scared.  So sucky.  Guess I am really not mom of the year now for forgetting (half accidental half on purpose) their flu shots.

All I know is that I will be home ALL WEEKEND LONG if anyone needs me. (Although, I will NOT be on my computer).  I have cancelled all our weekend plans.  That's okay, its cold and crappy out anyhow. Thank goodness my hubby is in town.

Wish me luck. Hope you have a better weekend than I am going to have. See you Monday!