This all started on Halloween when Kristina and I took the girls to the Mall for Spooky Storytime and playtime in the
The next day Sidney's began to act a little funny. She wasn't sleeping well and occasionally she'd cough. By the weekend, just in time for my Mother & Cindy to visit for the King Tut exhibit, Sidney was actually sick. She had a chesty cough and a slight temperature.
Cindy returned to Portland while Mom stayed in Seattle for few days since Ken went to California for work. Cindy caught the bug and suddenly I'm wasn't feeling very well either. Later we would learn Mom also caught this nasty bug too.
There was so much coughing. The rare times Sidney gets sick don't involve coughing so I was unprepared for this. I felt so bad at night when I could hear her down the hall. It kept her awake a few nights and there's nothing to do at this age except provide warm water with honey & lemon (if they'll drink it) and a vaporizer. Activities were wiped off our schedule: all playdates, preschool and evening commitments cancelled. So we were going stir-crazy. Soon, Calvin was not his normally chipper self and coughing with a very congested nose. This was scary because it shook his whole body and if he had been eating, he spat up--sometimes projectile. We tried to keep him comfortable with a vaporizer and sleeping upright in his bouncy seat.
I called the advice nurse just to make sure we were doing everything we could for Calvin. While on the phone with her, she could hear him coughing and the frequency he was doing it. She became concerned and encouraged me to go to Children's ER. I took him by myself and the only thing they did was industrial suction his nose & sinuses. He did not like it but finally he could breathe so feeding from a bottle wasn't a problem. He took close to 5 ounces as we were sitting there waiting to be discharged and I was so thrilled he was eating. Just as I was readjusting and going to burp him, he coughed and spit up EVERYWHERE. In epic proportions. I had a spare outfit for him but not for me. The doctor acted like no big deal and kept talking to me all the while I'm giving him a look like "a little help here?" Anyway. Bulb suction and vaporizer with sleeping in an inclined position was the advice.
You know what's worse than having 2 sick children? Having 2 children who insisted on coughing directly into my face so I became sick as well. You know what's worse than that? Having to get up in the dead of night and do multiple feedings in that condition. Mary Poppins and Winnie the Pooh were on heavy rotation so that I could keep Sidney occupied downstairs and I could eek through the day.
And a healthy holiday was not to be: "have sickness, will travel." Two nights before we left for Thanksgiving, a massive storm hit Seattle and dumped so much rain. One of our clean outs backed up and our basement took on water. It affected the corner of our carpeted family room. We discovered this within an hour of a WSU dinner I organized at a restaurant downtown, but I had to run out to Aurora Rents before it closed to get industrial blowers, a dehumidifier and wet vac. All while still being sick, delirious and hopped up on Dayquil. I did make it to the dinner though--late. (We had to leave all of that equipment running with the heat up high while we were out of town and have the neighbor check in on it.)
Days later, we journeyed to Portland for Thanksgiving and enroute to my cousin's house (where we were going to stay) she called me to let us know their water supply had tested positive for E.coli so we'd have to buy or boil all the water we used. She was even on the local NEWS for it. But at that point, I was thinking of course this would be our luck. Might as well add one more thing. The water tested fine the next day and the boil notice was lifted.
In just these last one or two days, we are finally feeling normal and not "sickly." Because Novembers, as a rule, suck.
