Keller Health Update

For the first time in a very long time, all four of us appear to be sick with the same thing. I just wish we knew what this "thing" is.

Ben started coughing and feeling blah on Thursday, but he was able to go to work and the football game, with the help of sinus drugs and Advil. He also had a slight fever, where he feels hot and cold and can't easily regulate his temperature. Saturday morning, which was when he decided he needed to go to Urgent Care, he started to feel better, and was able to go to the kids' activities, although he still didn't feel great.

Friday night I started to feel congested, but didn't really start coughing much until Sunday. And by last night I was pretty miserable. Sam was acting funny at the movie and lunch Sunday morning, and by late afternoon was on the couch with a fever of 101. He and Maria were both coughing a little by then.

Ben and I decided that I would stay home with Sam Monday, since Ben had band practice after school, then he could stay home Tuesday, and repeat as needed (kids are supposed to be fever-free for 24 hours before returning to school, with all of the swine flu going around).

Sam got me up at 4:30 Th's morning- his fever was back and he threw up a little. Got him Motrin and back to bed - he ended up sleeping until 9:30. Meanwhile, Maria got up with her alarm at 6:30 and showered like normal, but then didn't eat much breakfast. Turns out she had a low grade fever now too. So the three of us stayed home. We're all coughing, but when the kids are under the influence of fever-reducers they are fairly active and spent a lot of the day putting together one of Sam's K'Nex roller coasters.

Then late this afternoon Sam got sick again, and his fever was back even though his Motrin hadn't worn off. Which makes me think his fever would be fairly high without the Motrin. In the meantime, Ben feels that he may now have a sinus infection. So he'll stay home tomorrow and go to the Dr. with anyone here who is still sick. Except me, I have to go to work to get caught up and set up to miss Wednesday.

And of course, with all the swine flu panic, especially the number of children who are dying, it does make me worry more. It just seems that even healthy kids who get medical care, who get admitted to the hospital in plenty of time, can still die of complications. And that is very scary. I've done a lot of reading, and Sam has symptoms that are in both the "cold" and "flu" columns on the charts. And it's not like we're not being careful - we fully plan to get the kids vaccinated this year, but the Health Department clinics for seasonal flu are this weekend, and no word on when the H1N1 vaccine will be available for healthy children. So it's just very frustrating.