Sick again!

Friday, February 24 - Sunday March 4

Well, our family was hit by sickness once again this winter. This time I think it was the influenza virus and all of the kids came down with it. It started with M&M. She came home from school Thursday afternoon complaining about her back really hurting her. Then the next morning she had late start for school and when she came upstairs to eat breakfast, DH and I both saw her and knew immediately that she was too sick to go to school. Her cheeks were flushed and she did not look well at all. Later that evening the kids started dropping like flies - going from one set of flushed cheeks to another - with fevers. By Saturday all of the kids were sick and spent the day just laying around the house not doing anything. M&M was supposed to give a talk in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday and it was looking for a little while like she might be well enough to go, but by evening time again on Saturday she started not feeling well again. We all stayed home from church on Sunday. (I think this was a first for our family to all stay home from church because of sickness.) DH and I were both well enough to go, but MJ and Kay wanted me around because they weren't feeling well and with my weakened immune system DH stayed around to help out too. I did go to a meeting before church and DH went to the clerk's office after church to help count the tithing money, but other than that we stayed around the house handing out doses of medicine like it was candy...

On Monday, M&M felt well enough to go to school and it was a good thing because she had a performance downtown with a youth symphony group that she plays with. After she got home from that she crashed on the couch. The rest of the kids stayed home and DH worked from home so he could be around to help out if needed.

By Tuesday everyone was back in school except for Blondie. She developed a horrible cough and I didn't feel good sending her to school that day. On Wednesday I felt that everyone was finally well enough to go back to school. That evening though Luke started feeling not well again and he threw up in the middle of the night. So Luke stayed home from school on Thursday and Friday. He threw up a couple of times and had a bad stomachache as well as headache. By this point all of the kids had coughs and stuffy noses, but I sent them to school anyways. It's hard to know when to keep them home from school and when not to. Luke started feeling better Friday afternoon and was able to finally start eating normal meals again. By Sunday we were all well enough to go back to church. MJ still had a little bit of a cough and runny nose so I kept her with me in the primary room instead of sending her to nursery.

Amazingly through all of this I did not get sick (and neither did DH). The only thing that we can think is that it was the influenza virus and DH and I are the only ones who received the flu shot this year. We have never done the flu shot for any of us in the past, but this year with my chemo treatments we felt that I should probably get it as well as DH. I don't think that we have ever come down with the flu in the past either though.

I took this picture on Saturday, February 25th. If you look closely in this picture you can find 4 kids laying down, in various stages of sleep. Kay is playing in the background and I am holding the 6th sick kid, MJ, while I am taking this picture.
When I got home from my meeting on Sunday, this is how I found DH and MJ. MJ is not a cuddly baby so this is a very unusual sight to see.