Whacked Week...

Little did I know how interesting this week would turn out to be.

It was supposed to be very normal and usual, but quickly became unusual.

Monday was fine, until after bedtime when I noticed a slight sore throat. The one that you get when you start getting a cold. Maura had been battling one for a few days, so didn't think to much of it because it is the season, and we have been very healthy so far this winter. During the night I felt weaker with each time I got up with Maura, and at 3 am when Kevin got up for something, told him that he was probably going to have to stay home. He sounded less than enthused, but hey, it happens.

By 8 am Tuesday could hardly walk or keep my eyes open. Was feeling really achy and that throat was tremendously sore. But you know as mom's we always talk ourselves out of being sick enough to go to the doctor for ourselves, but anything for the kids. I decided that Maura should be checked out since she was the one that was suffering with symptoms longer than I, and everyone wants the baby better. So I mustered up the energy to take her in, but feeling like I probably needed to be seen too. Give it another day I thought. Maura had a URI (upper respiratory infection) caused by a virus and everything looked "textbook perfect."

We went home and I tried to sleep the day away. Again I warned Kevin that I wouldn't have enough energy to be home alone with the kids and to be prepared to stay home again. I had just spent that whole day not being able to carry my baby or even lifting her because I was too weak. The next day felt about the same, but managed to turn a bit better by afternoon and thought that I was past the worst.

Thursday came and was home with the kids resting on the couch when I could, but still that throat was persistent and didn't want to give, so I decided that I would make an unnecessary trip to the doctor to prove that I didn't have Strep and could move on and then immediately feel better after doing that. I got the last appointment at the mall at 7:20. I knew the lab worker out there and he asked if I wanted a Strep test, to which I took my time saying "yes." He swabbed my tonsilless throat and got the test going so it could be done by the time I met with the nurse practitioner. She came in an announced that I DID have Strep!!! A part of me was so thankful, but then knew the rest of my family had been exposed to it made my head hurt even worse. I asked her if she thought I should just have them tested, and she didn't think so unless they were showing symptoms.

Understandable, because you don't want to treat people that don't have it because that could cause more super bugs like MRSA, VRE, etc. I'm a lab person I know the microbiology on this. However a part of me was just wanted the reassurance that they didn't have it, or have it and get treated too.

My mind contemplated this issue until 11:30 Friday morning when I finally decided that I should just get them tested because at 7 pm tonight they will all end up with fevers and then need to be brought to the ER to get treated for something that I could have prevented from happening if I just would have gone to get it checked earlier in the day. **We all know kids decide to show symptoms the minute the clinic closes on Friday, right?** The nurse told us to wait until 1:30 to come is, so we took naps and got there at 4. We only had a wait a few minutes and a nurse from our church called us back. She seemed a bit confused why they were all getting tested when they weren't symptomatic, but told her I have it and want it done before the weekend. She was fine with it, but probably thinking it was a bit ridiculous. Me too. She reminded my to have my cell phone on so that when she called I could get the info and she could go home. :)

As much as I wanted to just go home, I knew that we would get home and then have to get back in the car again. To avoid that, I just decided to drive around for a bit until I heard from her. When she called she explained that we were a very unusual case and they don't see much of it. I figured the kids were all negative at this point and that we just get to go home and call it a week, but she then shared that all the kids were positive for Strep!!!!

Good thing we didn't go home because then we got to go to the pharmacy to get prescriptions for 4 people, including Kevin for good measure. The doctor figured that it was inevitable. When I got home and gave the kids their first dose, I sternly told Kevin to take his too. I asked him if he was feeling any way out of sorts, and did then confess to feeling a little bit off that day.

Now the kids think that they should just get to down the whole bottle of medicine because it tastes so darn good and cry when I tell them they have to wait until breakfast, or supper. I even wonder what would have happened if I wouldn't have finally gone in to get checked. Even yuckier things can happen when you don't treat Strep, so I'm glad we are all on the medicine train.

And if this is sounding at all familiar to you, it is true that this happened almost 1 year ago.

Now I get to do some major cleaning to rid our house of this nasty bacteria!! Maybe I can consider it "spring cleaning?"