The Week From Hell

Monday morning we were all up, dressed and ready to walk out the door to go to the gym when I noticed something amiss with JoeJoe. I took his temperature and sure enough it was 101 degrees. I canceled the gym and planned on staying home. For the next two days I had a horrible time controlling his temperature with ibuprofen and Tylenol. On Tuesday Kayla also started complaining about feeling sick. By Tuesday night little Joe's fever spiked to 104.5. After a visit with the nighttime doctor, the test for influenza came back positive. For those that don't know, influenza is the actual flu. Headaches, stuffy nose, runny nose, body-aches, cough, upset stomach, vomiting, diarrhea and FEVER. Of course it's a virus and you must start the anti-viral medication within 48 hours of onset. Lucky for me, we were within the 48 hour window. Unlucky for me, it was 9 pm and the only pharmacies that were open were out of stock. So, one by one, the influenza took them down. JoeJoe was already feeling like crap, clinging to me and constantly saying "Mommy, I need you." By Wednesday Kayla started with the Fever and Joe came home from work early. By Thursday they were all a mess. In the middle of the night Kayla's fever spiked to 104.7. Kayla missed school Tuesday to Friday and Joe missed work Wednesday afternoon and Thursday. Thank goodness he was already off Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Even today they're still walking around and sleeping like zombies.

As if the influenza wasn't enough for JoeJoe, he had to fall and hit his eyebrow and split it open. I am so glad I wasn't at home when it happened because I probably would've taken him for stitches. Joe stopped the bleeding and appeased Joe with a "Cars" band-aid. Today a nice black eye appeared.

Amid all this there are so many things I am thankful for. I have an amazing husband who blesses our family with his priesthood. There were two particularly unnerving nights with really high fevers and each child received a father's blessing. It almost seemed instantaneous that their symptoms were lightened and were able to get some rest. As I said my prayers last night I felt as though I was begging Heavenly Father to please help them all to get well quickly. As I said that I wondered about all the families whose little ones didn't get well and why they were not "blessed". What if one of my little ones were not "blessed". It was a testimony to me that there is a plan for each of us and only Heavenly Father knows what that plan is. We just need to live with faith in knowing he will take care of us.

So, an under-celebrated event happened among all this chaos. Kayla lost her first tooth! It had been loose for such a long time but she didn't dare just pull it out that one day it was just so loose it fell right out. She almost didn't even notice it. The tooth fairy visited her that night and the next morning she told us she saw the tooth fairy and got to talk to her. That must've been the night she had the REALLY high fever and hallucinated.

So, this week I canceled visiting teaching, had to reschedule our white elephant party and gingerbread house making as well as miss Joe's work party, our Ward Christmas Party and dinner and "The Nativity" at my mom and dad's. Surprisingly, I only woke up with a mild sore throat this morning. Let's hope that's all I get.