Croup De'Ville

We found out tonight that Bo has Croup*.

He's had a sore throat for a few days but nothing crazy. Then this morning he started complaining about it more and gradually started wheezing and making hoarse coughing sounds (which I now know is called "barking"). By the time he woke up from his afternoon nap, he sounded horrible, looked miserable, and was running a high fever.

I called our babysitter to come watch Sam and I took Bo to Urgent Care. When we got there his fever was 103 and he sounded even worse. The doctor diagnosed him immediately with Croup just by listening to his labored breathing and barking (he checked his lungs and ears but they were clear).

Said his first concern was to get Bo's fever down. We (I held him down while the doctor forced his mouth open) tried giving him some Tylenol and Motrin but he immediately puked it up all over us. Yummy.

On to plan B.

A Tylenol suppository (which Bo hated - I don't blame him) followed by a steroid shot in each thigh (hated that too) (normally would be given orally but due to the puking he had to get the shots), and a 15 minute breathing treatment. The nurses wrapped him up in a sheet like a burrito to keep his arms trapped down, and placed a dragon mask over his nose and mouth. He resisted for only a few seconds before falling asleep on my lap.

We then had to stick around for a couple of hours to make sure he didn't have a worse relapse after the breathing treatment wore off (which he didn't. Thank God). It was a long 2 hours but Bo was really good, despite the nurses giving him a coloring book with no crayons. What's up with that, Mr Supply Guy?

But we're home and he's in bed now, asleep. The poor guy has had a traumatic afternoon. I just hope the night is much less eventful. I'll keep you posted.

*Croup - Infection, inflammation and swelling of the larynx and surrounding tissue. This causes labored breathing and a characteristic "barking" noise with each inhalation or cough. Caused by contagious viral infection.

All Hail Mr. Mom

Today I woke up feeling particularly shitty from this horrendous head cold I've been battling for over a week and decided that I better go to the doctor before my head and ears exploded. Literally. I mean it. I thought they might.

The pain was in my head like a normal sinus infection but during the night it migrated down into my jaw (weird, I know). And bad. It felt like I had been either punched in the face millions of times or had the most extensive dental work done that required hundreds of shots in my mouth and a fracture or two. Seriously, it hurt. I have never felt anything like it. And it still does.

Anytime I bend over, or even just squat down, the change in pressure about drops me. (Which by the way, I'm really not that tall, so why should just bending down do anything? It's not like I'm repelling down Mount Everest or anything. I'm just squatting down with my head up. I don't get it. But anyway) It pushes the pain even harder outward into my temples and ears and next time it happens I may just be cleaning up head splatter. Really, I might. Thank goodness I have a great steam cleaner.

But I digress, the reason for this post is my wonderful husband. Here I am sick and miserable, and here he is, exhausted from working his tail off all week selling houses so I can stay home with the kids, and yet he was the ultra Mr. Mom today. He did it all.

He made french toast for breakfast, cleaned up the kitchen, did the laundry while I was at the doctor, put both kids down for morning naps, straightened up the laundry room, cleaned out the refrigerator, cleaned all my junk out of the Murano, widdled down his 3 trillion t-shirts so they will fit in the drawer, plowed the driveway, shoveled the front porch, took the trash to the dump. You name it, he did it.

And now, it's almost 10:00pm and he's downstairs working. I don't know how he does it. The man is a machine. But he's my machine and I love him for it.

House Of Snot

Sam is full of snot again. Poor guy. He's been running fever for 24 hours and has tons of green snot coming out of his nose at all times. He's a mess and thanks to the wonderful socialized health care of the US Army, there are NO appointments available yesterday, today or tomorrow. What's that all about?!?

I thought he might have an ear infection so I decided to take him to Urgent Care last night but once again, thanks to the wonderful inner workings of the US Army, the waiting room was packed. Standing room only. All infants and kids. (Can't someone see the pediatric unit needs a complete overhaul here? Hello!) So when the triage lady told me it was a 4-6 hour wait, we turned around and came home. That's ridiculous. I'm sorry but the last thing I wanted to do was sit there for hours upon hours. Besides, I think I got sick just walking in there. Hepatitis maybe. Or gangrene. Can you even catch gangrene? I don't know but I think I just did.

And to make it all worse, Sam HATES, and I mean HATES to have his nose wiped. The mere site of a tissue makes him cry. So I have tried to become the stealth wiper. Coming in from all angles when he least expects it. Over the top, around the corner, with tissues, with fingers (I'm desperate), with washcloths, with burp rags, you name it, I've wiped with it. Although 9 times out of 10 I just end up smearing it all over his cheeks rather than really wiping it up. Not good. And then in his attempts to evade the apparently not-so-stealth wiper, he ends up burying his face into my chest and smearing the snot all over my shirt. If only you could see me now. Me and my skid-marked snotty tee. Yumm. I am quite the site, let me tell you.

And so we are home, waiting it out. The snot and the cold. It is really cold here today. Our thermometer has been hovering around -20F and it's supposed to keep getting colder this weekend. Ugh. Thank goodness we are getting out of here in 2 weeks. Warm weather here we come.

Not So Poopy

Today was better. Bo woke up, came out of his room, sat down on the couch and said, "My owie is gone." (Phew) No more puke, poop or horrific smells. All in all a better day.

However, he is still not 100% and now I have it. I have yet to projectile puke anything across the room but felt like there was a high possibility of it happening once or twice this afternoon.

Instead, I pitched camp in the bathroom, laptop and all (should I "red flag" it?), for an hour or so, put on my pj pants, took a short nap while both kiddos snoozed, drank some sprite, and trucked on.

Now, it's 9:30pm and I'm heading to bed. Hopefully tomorrow my owie is gone, too.

Yesterday's Bookend Messes

Yesterday started off with projectile milk vomit all over the coffee table and ended with the worst smelling diarrhea ever that took a fan, a candle and the baking of cookies to rectify.

I hope today is less eventful and most certainly less smelly. I'll keep you posted.

Miracle Drug

This stuff is AMAZING!! I have had the worst head cold for a week and have felt like shit the whole time. I have used almost an entire box of Sudafed and at least 2 boxes of tissues this week and nothing has helped relieve the intense pressure behind by ears or horrible block of cement that has so rudely taken up space in my head. Well, nothing until now.

Thanks to advice from my Uncle Doc, I went out tonight and bought some Afrin. 20 minutes and 6 squirts ago, I became a new woman. I can breathe clearly for the first time in days and am loving it. I keep inhaling huge breaths through my nose to feel the cool mouthwashy feel it left behind. It's so great. I'm telling you, if you haven't ever tried it, you need to (if you get a bad head cold that is).

What I don't get though, is why my doctor never suggested it to me. It sure seems simple enough and much cheaper than the drug cocktail of Sudafed, Motrin & Vicodin he prescribed to me. Is this something that lots of other people know about or no? Either way, it is new to me, and believe you me, I am a new fan and will always keep a bottle on hand just in case.

I'm going to go to bed now and enjoy sleeping on 1 pillow instead of having to prop my head up on 3 to try and breathe. I just hope it lasts until morning becuase the bottle says to not use it more than twice in 24 hours. My fingers are crossed.

On The Mend

It looks like we're all going to come out of this yet. Bo is back to his normal self and after just 2 days of antibiotics Sam is already breathing much better which made him sleep better last night which let me get 3 hours of uninterrupted sleep (instead of 1.5) at a time which made me feel better this morning.

It's crazy to me how getting 3 hours, 3 hours, and then 2.5 hours of sleep at a time feels so amazing when pre-kids this would have been hell. But oh, it felt great last night. I actually felt a little rested this morning when Bo woke me up at 7:30. I just hope it continues to get better. Poor Sam really has had a go of it and I'm sure he's ready for some better sleep, because I know I am.

How Not To Win Mother Of The Year

*** Preface ***
The following is not a recommended form of mothering even if you are sick with nasty growths in your throat, a head under severe pressure, and 2 sick kids, but sometimes it's just the way it is . . .

*********************************************

Let your 2.5 year old crawl into bed with you at 7:30 in the morning to watch cartoons because you are too tired to get your ass out of bed.

Get out of bed an hour later and serve him organic cocoa puffs and a granola bar for breakfast in front of the living room tv.

Continue letting him watch tv until 1:00pm. (Don't feed him lunch)

Read him 2 books before nap time.

Leave and take your 4 month old to the doctor (sinus infection) while your friend sits at your house for 2.5 hours without being able to access the Internet.

Come home right when he is waking up at 3:30pm.

Let him watch movies downstairs until 6:00pm.

Ignore the fact that he is eating directly out of a half-gallon tub of frozen yogurt he drug out the freezer, down the stairs, and onto the coffee table all by himself without asking.

Consider the frozen yogurt "dinner" once you take it upstairs to the kitchen, put it in a bowl and continue to let him eat it.

Try to make up for the horrible mothering day by coloring a bit, only to resort back to the tv until bath time.

Again feeling guilty, spell out words on the tub wall in bath letters. S-A-M, F-I-S-H, T-O-Y while you bounce your 4 month old in his bouncy seat with your foot.

Let him watch more tv while drinking hot-milk before brushing his teeth and clipping his finger nails.

Read him 3 books. Well 2 actually. The third was more of a turn 4 pages at once, speed read.

Say goodnight and plop down on the couch to nurse your 4 month old before putting him to bed so you can put your feet up and blog.

Nana, Sick, Snot & Halloween

My mom has been here for 4 days and I have been sick for all 4 (thus the lack of blogging). She flew in Thursday afternoon and I have been running fever ever since. It sucks! And now, she is leaving in the morning, I am still sick, and the boys are snotty nose messes of diarrhea (Bo) and sneezing fits (Sam). What a great visit!

However, we did manage to enjoy Halloween a little bit on Friday by drugging up (me) and going to Gymnastics, Inc for a morning of costumes and fun. Bo, despite his temper tantrum of vocal reluctance to wear the damn thing because it had an "owie zipper", was Curious George. And a cute Curious George at that.

Sam did not dress up (yes, I am a lame mom) but enjoyed watching his brother run and jump and swing on the rings for 2 hours, and not as Curious George, but as Bo, because he stripped down after about 10 minutes. Damn zippers!

Bo loved playing with the parachute. It was his first time and was absolutely giddy. Oh, and don't let my happy face fool you, I am feeling like crap in this picture but was trying hard to "fake-it" for Bo's sake.

Then later that night, Wes and I were supposed to go to a Greater Fairbanks Board of Realtors Halloween Party, but unfortunately my "faking-it" only got me so far. I tried telling myself I felt better than I did (the whole mind-over-matter thing), got all dressed up, and then crashed. I never made it out the door.


Thank goodness I didn't go. Within an hour or so of this photo, I was in bed, shaking uncontrollably with chills and a fever of 102.7. Happy Halloween to me.

So that was Friday. And on Saturday, it continued with more fever, more body aches, my throat feeling like a sharp bowling ball every time I swallowed, my head and ears on the brink of explosion and, as if that wasn't enough, Sam's stuffiness got really bad and Bo started running fever as well. By midnight his had skyrocketed up to 104 degrees. Welcome to Fairbanks, Nana!

Sunday wasn't much better so Mom convinced me to go to the doctor and I think the doc felt sorry for me for not going trick-or-treating this year because he sent me home with a pretty good bag full of goodies. Vicodin, Motrin & Sudafed. I would much rather have had Twix, Kit-Kat, & Reece's, but at least my treats won't turn my thighs into nasty cottage cheese (glass is always half full).

But in between all of Sam's 3 trillion sneezes in Nana's drinks, Bo's diarrhea and fever, and my sick self, we did manage to have some fun.

Bath Time With Nana

Bo & Nana Making Gnocchi

Sam Getting Some Sugar From Nana

And that was our weekend. It wasn't what I had hoped for Mom's visit, but at least we got to see her. I just hope we didn't get her sick, but I'm not holding my breath.