GERMS and our trip to the ER (Boo!!!)

I can pretty much sum up the last few months in one word: germs! We have been so sick this year! Normally, my immune system is awesome, and I rarely (if ever!) catch anything. Not this year. It started with strep throat. I had a 103 degree fever and ended up on antibiotics for 10 days. About 10 days after finishing those, I had another high ever out of no where. Just lots of congestion/drainage, etc...so I let that virus run its course. Thankfully, up to this point, the girls had been completely healthy with not even the slightest runny nose.

Ella's ordeal started on a Saturday morning. It was nothing major, runny nose and a little cough. She was playing, eating, sleeping well. By 4 o'clock that afternoon, she had a fever of 102. About an hour later, she climbed up into my lab and got really lethargic. She wouldn't say much, but just had a pitiful whine/moan, and she felt unbelievably HOT. I checked her temperature several times over the next 15 minutes and it consistently read between 105-105.5! So scary! Immediately, I feared febrile seizure so I called the pediatricians on-call service. They instructed me to go on to Children's.

Ella did so great in the ER. They drew her blood, did a flu test, a breathing treatment, and an x-ray. She listened to us and them and followed instructions so well. (even though it was past her bedtime by this point and she was feeling lousy). They ruled out flu and pneumonia. Based on all the tests, they told us it was just a nasty virus. They got her fever down to 101-102 and sent us home with breathing treatments (due to some wheezing) to do for a few days. She recovered by mid-week with just a little lingering cough. We were so scared there for a little while. I mean, that is one HIGH fever!

(Doing a breathing treatment at home)

Since then, Stephen and I have both had some "crud" we can't seem to get completely rid of. It's very likely a mix of a cold plus the allergies that have started kicking in, especially for Stephen.

Throughout all this, little Harper has only had the slightest bit of a cough and runny nose. I will take the credit for that since I'm still breastfeeding! On the other hand, that's probably the reason I have caught EVERYTHING this season. It's killing my immune system this time around. I guess I'd still choose a healthy baby over a healthy Mommy though:) On a side note, Harper has been teething like crazy so we'll see how this goes!