That’s what I affectionately have been calling our house over the last few weeks.  It seems to be cursed with sickness awaiting all who enter.  First Will got sick.  It was on a Wednesday and he, Seth, and I were watching Elise’s dance class.  I noticed he was not as energetic as usual, climbing into my lap several times.  He felt warm and was flushed, but I didn’t think too much of it.  Later that night I checked him and he had a fever, but it wasn’t terribly high, so I put him to bed.  He threw up several times that night and I felt a bit off too.

I had heard about the salmonella outbreak from peanut butter products, so I was worried enough to call the doctor who said to bring him in.  He couldn’t keep anything down and had diarrhea too.  The doctor discovered an ear infection of all things, and said he probably had a stomach bug on top of that.  So we got some antibiotics and pedialyte and spent several days trying to keep him hydrated.

Friday I woke up feeling bad and very quickly progressed into the same stomach virus.  It was the most sick I have been since I had food poisoning several years ago, or perhaps since I was a kid.  I had it for 24 hours, though it took me longer to feel 100% back to normal.  Will was still throwing up once a day and not eating much.

During this time, the ice storm hit, and Bekah and Herbie (Tia and Tio to the kids) came to stay with us until their power came on.  This stay turned out to be a week and a half long, as it took much longer than expected for their house to get electricty back.  I’m going to miss them, it was nice having their company and the help around the house and with the kids.  🙂  Of course because they entered the house of germs, Bekah came down with the same symptoms and was also terribly sick for 24 hours.  Then Elise got it and Herbie seemed to get a mild case of it, though Bekah says his was actually due to eating a whole thing of chicken livers.  Yuck!

Despite the fact that my family had purposely been staying away, my Mom got sick with the same stomach bug.  I don’t think she passed it on to anyone else though.
Will was still throwing up over a week after initially getting sick, so I took him back to the doctor the same day I took Seth for his 2 month well-check.  It turns out he also had strep, which must have been resistant to the antibiotics, so we got another kind of antibiotics to try.  Seth, by the way, was completely healthy, got his shots and checkup, and was happy as can be.  He is off the charts in height at 25.5 inches long, and 50th percentile weight at 13 lbs. 4.5 oz.

That day Seth was not his cheery self as he dealt with pain from the shots.  It made for a difficult day at the store while I was at work.  Will started to slowly improve over the next few days, while Seth started to get sicker and sicker with what started as a cold.  Elise and John both got sore throats, but thankfully got over them quickly on their own.  Seth’s cold turned into a cough, a hacking horribly painful cough.  I didn’t think it was more than a cold though, so I didn’t take him in.  He was breathing fine, except for when he needed his nose cleaned out.  He was waking at night a lot to cough and would sometimes gag with the coughs.  This last Friday I was getting ready to head out of town to Kansas City (for an embroidery trade show and seminar, which was really good by the way).  I had noticed that Seth had started to lose his voice and would cry in pain when he coughed, so I was worried that his throat was now sore.  I tried to get ahold of the doctor before I left, but couldn’t, so I just took him with me.  He did all right over the weekend, but still terribly sick.  Today I was able to take him in to the doctor.  The poor guy has bronchitis that has also been irritating one of his ears.  He must be in a lot of pain.  He’s also lost an ounce from the last time we took him in.  He still smiles, but is not his usual laid-back self.  I have had to hold him a lot the last few days and he won’t sleep out of my bed at night.  John is frustrated because he isn’t happy when Daddy holds him, just Mommy for some reason.  I am hopeful that now that we have antibiotics for him, he will improve quickly.

Oh, and while I was gone in Kansas City, Mark (John’s brother who was visiting for the first time after being home from Iraq) got sick as well.  The same stomach virus.  I don’t think there is any way that we could have given it to him, but I still felt bad.  And then of course his Mom got it too.  😦
Well, hopefully we have gotten through all our sicknesses for the whole winter in two weeks.  🙂  But if we haven’t, I at least hope we get a break before something else hits.