Monday, February 05, 2007

Yucky blucky flu

Because Walgreens, the pharmacy we usually use, had given my sister the last two bottles of Tamiflu for kids, we had to use the demon pharmacy in town to get our Tamiflu on Friday. And since it isn't the pharmacy we usually use, they said I had to go there and personally present the kids' insurance cards rather than have someone else pick it up, like my husband who was already in town - probably because they wanted to steal my soul in person. So Kady and I got around to head into town. As I was getting my keys to go start the van, the phone rang - it was the school. Abby was in the office wanting something for her sore throat. I told the secretary that I'd just come get her. I'd been expecting a call all day, to be honest. So I picked Ab up, went to the demon pharmacy, got the medicine from their hellishly unfriendly demon staff without having to present their insurance cards (I swear I heard Satan laugh from behind the shelves of drugs), then went to the grocery store to get some Sprite (because I grew up as a child of the 70's and everyone from that era knows that Sprite and 7Up have magical healing powers), milk and bread then came home to hole up.

Things went fine that night, but ooooh golly Saturday morning all hell broke loose.

Abby was running a fever, complaining of a sore throat, her cough sounded horrific, she was pale and lethargic. Then Kady started complaining of a severe headache and her fever spiked up to 104.2. Yeah. Then...........then, they both started puking. It was grand times around here. Poor Sammy just laid in the floor and played PS2 and watched cartoons and tried to ignore us all. I wasn't feeling too great myself, so when I wasn't holding puke buckets for the girls I was curled up in the recliner, wrapped up in a blanket. I called Paul when he got off work and had him pick up more Motrin, Tylenol, cough syrup and a new thermometer. Our digital one died and I've been using an old bulb thermometer for the last 6 months. Which is fine until a kid's temp jumps up to the really high numbers, then I want to be able to know exactly how hot they are because I'm strange that way.

Yesterday was better. All fevers were gone, no more barfing, but they are both still pale and tired today. All in all, it was a very, very mild case of the flu. I think the fact that they both had flu shots this year and we got them on the Tamiflu very early is what kept it from being much, much worse. Sam has a mild cough, but he's had it since Thursday, so I figure it's just a cough and nothing more. I kept Abby home again today because she wears out so quick. She's not happy about it and presently is having an energy surge and is driving me nuts wanting to bake cookies, play on the computer, help me with my homework, paint the house, email her Congressman and cure cancer. She'll wear out here in a few minutes and go lie listlessly on the couch for awhile. I hope she can go back to school tomorrow.

Last night I started chilling and my body started aching. The cough I'd had since Saturday got worse, so I came out here to do up some homework ahead of time just in case I got down, but this morning I feel better. Either I was just tired or I have the immune system of Super Man. Either way, it's working for me, so I won't complain.

Because I've been submerged in it, I wrote my article for the campus newspaper about the flu outbreak in our area. I'm not an expert, but I play one in my home while I hold puke buckets for my kids.

2 comments:

Queen Of Cheese said...

I felt awful last night when I went to bad, I was all excited because I was planning to call in sick and dang it I woke up this a.m. feeling better. Here's hoping for tomorrow.....

MamaKBear said...

Betcha anything y'all picked up those nasty flu germs on the airplane!

Hope everyone is feeling better soon! Puking kiddos...ugh!

We....the people

Originally published in The Miami News-Record, July 2020 Everything is different now. I’m not just talking about masks and social distancing...