What's ailing us?

Izzy has been quite sick with a major chest cold for the last two weeks. I remember a time when she was like this ALL THE TIME but that was years ago before her surgery to make her stop vomitting. Man o man, I do NOT miss those days... The oximeter was my best friend as I would constantly be checking her oxygen saturation percentage and heart rate to make sure she did not require another emergency visit. It's pretty sad when you start to know the nurses by first name...

Gone are those days and we've spent the last couple of years enjoying Isabel's new found strength and health. However, two weeks ago, she had a really rough night - lots of coughing and crying. Sure enough, the next day at school, we received a phone call by noon saying Isabel had developed a fever.

Had this been the old days, I would think nothing of it as it was abnormal for her NOT to have SOMETHING ailing her, but things are certainly different now.

At any rate, she spent the week with James last week and returned to us on friday. We've had some rough nights (thank God almighty for my respite workers!) but all in all, she has done relatively ok.

Anika, on the other hand, stopped eating her usual "healthy" portions a few days ago. We had wondered if it was due to eating pizza and ice cream at bowling on friday (she just doesn't seem to tolerate gluten & dairy well, either) so we just waited for the mild setback to pass.

However, yesterday, in the span of one hour, she went from being perfectly normal to spiking a rapid fever of 104 with a dog-barking-sound-type cough. She has not been able to keep anything down since although we have had SOME luck with watered down apple juice. We have been trying to get her to drink water and baths are certainly a huge help in bringing down her high fever... anytime I have tried giving her tylenol or children's advil, she throws it right up. (Duane says "atta girl"... but sometimes I think it really does merit a little "help" in the fever department).

Last night, I was not feeling so hot, or rather I was feeling hot. By the time I had to nurse Ethan at 1:00 a.m. I had brutal chills and had to take a HOT bath. Today I am left aching all over and a throbbing headache that feels like someone put an oversized brain in my skull and it's trying to throb its way out.

Ew... that was a gross descriptor (visually speaking) but it sure hits the nail on the head... get it? Cuz it feels like someone's also hammering my head? Oh will the jokes never end? (Duane wishes they would).

Anyways, please keep our darling Anika in your prayers, too. Izzy seems to have gotten over the worst of it but I worry about how quickly and how hard this has hit Anika. And all the media crap surrounding the H1N1 virus has me battling my thoughts to stay positive.

Here's hoping you are all safe and healthy and free of viruses! And if you're reading this wearing flannel pjs and sniffling in discomfort (while someone's trying to place an oversized brain into your skull) then I pray for swift recovery! Take care everyone!