Deep in the Trenches

I must sincerely apologize to any faithful blog-readers of mine out there for not posting in weeks.  We have had quite the roller coaster of sickness (and sleepy-mommy-ness) to do any blogging.  But I am happy to report that (drum roll, please)--all the members of the Hayes family are now sickness-free (woohoo)!  : )

All right, so let's rewind to two weeks from today, April 25th, to when the sickness whirlwind began.  (Prepare yourselves, this will be a LONG post).  

Eli woke up with a runny nose and was feeling on the cranky side.  (Before I continue, I just have to state that Eli is one of the happiest kids I have ever met.  It takes some serious sickness or over-tiredness for him to cry.)  He had a huge crying-filled meltdown right before our playdate came over, and I just figured he was overtired from sleeping poorly the day before.  Well, for the next few days those "huge crying-filled meltdowns" occurred pretty much every hour (and the worst part was that he would not let me console him).  It was obvious he was in a great deal of pain--sore throat and teething his molars.  He did not have a fever and was still sleeping well, so we just kept the advil going around-the-clock.  He hardly ate a thing, but that's how he always gets when he's sick or teething.  Thursday evening (the 26th) he was really, really struggling.  David gave him a blessing, and he and I both took turns trying to get him to go to sleep and stay asleep.  He was just crying so much.  It absolutely rips at your heartstrings to hear your child so distressed and not be able to help in any way.  When he woke up the next morning he had a fever (accompanied by another meltdown), so against David's advice, I made him a Dr. appointment.

Now, normally the Dr.'s office is just down the road from where we live.  But that day they only had an opening in their Fishers office, which was about 20 minutes away, driving on a very busy and scary highway.  We'd been to that office once before, but I was not driving then, and therefore did not pay attention to how to get there.

Obviously I was nervous to make this drive, but I was determined to get help for my son.  I said a prayer before we left that we would make it there safely, and I left early to give us plenty of time for delays (I also had my trusted GPS to guide me there, and foolishly believed that it possessed all of the knowledge required for our trip).  To make a long story short, I took TWO wrong exits, got stuck in a major traffic jam, and was this close to bawling at the wheel.

When we finally made it to the Dr. I realized that I knew exactly where we were, and couldn't believe what an idiot I had been in so drastically messing up our route to get there.  As I took Eli out of his carseat, I discovered that he was drenched all over from opening up his sippy cup and dumping the water all over himself.  I went into the office red-faced, embarrassingly explaining my reasons for being late and having a wet child.  Thankfully the staff was sweet and sympathetic to this young, inexperienced mother.

While Eli and I waited to be seen, he was surprisingly acting like his normal cheerful and friendly self, walking all around and "talking" to the other patients and workers.  I was beginning to worry that we made this whole harried trip for nothing.  I was silently begging that they would discover he did in fact have an ear infection, and that my "mother's intuition" had not failed me.  My wishing was in vain, however, as all that could be detected was a red throat and teething.  I could NOT believe it.  I started to kick myself as we walked to the check-out counter, and then after I paid $120 to be told my child was only teething, I wanted to scream.  David was right.  I, the mother, was wrong.  That was a bitter pill to take.

Eli developed a short-lived cough and long-lived yucky nose after our Dr. visit, but thankfully the crying spells went away and his teething pain was no more.  Tuesday the 1st, just as I had begun to breathe easier to now have my sweet boy again, I woke up early in the morning with the worst sore throat I could remember.  I was sweating profusely, and was so weak I could barely walk to the bathroom.  I had a fever of 102 and felt like I was dying (I know I'm a wuss, but it really was awful).  David was unable to stay home from work, so somehow I had to manage on my own.  I spent that day curled up in a blanket, lying on the floor as Eli played so sweetly next to me.  He was such a good boy during my sickness.

I continued to feel terrible on Wednesday, so I told David I needed him to stay home that morning and take me to the doctor.  I had all of the symptoms for strep throat, and was hoping that was the case so I could take some medicine that actually worked.  My rapid strep test came back negative, so they did a culture.  TWO days later I found out it was positive.  Ugh, what a wait!  My mom was able to come over one afternoon, and was so great to take Eli outside to play and do my dishes.  David was also such a wonderful help; making dinner, fetching me item after item, giving me lots of back rubs, and taking care of Eli.  I pinky-promised him that the next time he was sick I would take just as good of care of him.  : )

Thankfully my medicine kicked in right away, and I was feeling so much better by Saturday.  Then we just crossed our fingers and hoped that David would not also fall prey to the evil sickness.

Well, David did get sick at work on Monday, and had to come home early.  Although, he attributes it to us making an offer on a house that morning.  (More about that on a later post... : )

So I think it's safe to say that there is no more lingering illness in the Hayes household!  Here's hoping it will be a LONG time before we meet again!