Save us a seat

I think they need to save us our own seat in the pediatrician’s office, as we’ve been making a lot of trips there recently.

The Husband came down with something on Friday night and was not well the whole weekend. He stayed home from work on Monday and still was not well enough to go to work today. He never misses time from work, let alone two days, so you know it’s not good. Baby B had a slight runny nose on Monday morning, but she was completely fine to go to daycare. I started feeling a bit congested during dinner at a friend’s house on Monday night (I’d left The Husband and Baby B at home since I didn’t want them to spread what they had), and by the time I got home that night, I knew things weren’t looking good for me.

It hit the fan overnight last night. The Husband had a rough time with a fever. I was having issues with my nasal congestion and was up for about an hour doing stuff on the computer since I couldn’t sleep. Baby B slept well for most of the night though woke up coughing and with a fever around 5:30 a.m. I felt pretty miserable myself, but when you’re the parent who is the least bad off, then you’re the one in charge of caretaking duty. Not an easy position to be in.

Normally I don’t rush Baby B into the doctor at every sniffle or cough, but with the H1N1 paranoia this year and with her history of respiratory ailments and the fact that this flu is respiratory, I think it’s something we have to do.

Oh, did I forget to mention that on Monday evening we were told at daycare that there were two confirmed cases of H1N1 in Baby B’s classroom? Yeah. Her symptoms? Fever, cough, runny nose, congestion, and respiratory distress. Could be a basic cold or other virus, but also could be swine flu, so I knew I was going to have to take her in.

I showered and went to work around 6:30 a.m. so I could get a few things wrapped up there and I could be available to stay home today and tomorrow. (I’m scheduled to be off Thursday and Friday anyway.) I spent an hour getting work done and also began calling the doctor’s office at 7:30 a.m. when they open. I didn’t get through for 25 minutes, but I was able to secure a 9 a.m. appointment. I headed home and got Baby B dressed and put in the car for yet another trip to the pediatrician.

When we got there, they had masks at the entrance and asked those with flu-like symptoms to wear one. I knew Baby B was not likely to keep one on, but I tried anyway, and I was pleasantly surprised that she kept it on (after I wrapped the long string twice around each ear to keep it in place). We were called back pretty quickly and they immediately did the rapid flu swab to check for that. The doctor came in and talked to us and examined Baby B, agreeing that she did have flu-like symptoms and could see the test going either way. She also discovered yet another double ear infection — her third in almost 4 1/2 months — so I’ve got a consultation scheduled with the ENT on Thursday morning to discuss tubes again. Clearly this is becoming a pattern again, and it’s not even winter yet. I have no hesitations doing the tube surgery again if it’s something they would recommend for her.

Baby B’s rapid flu test came back negative, which is good on the one hand, but part of me was kind of hoping it would be positive and we could just treat it and move on. We left with antibiotics for the ear infection, and she went ahead and prescribed Flovent for Baby B because of her history of wheezing episodes with colds/viruses (and the fact that both of her parents are asthmatic).  We’ll keep her on that until her three-year checkup in January and see how she’s doing on it.

Baby B and I got home and she slept for a couple hours before getting up in time for lunch. I had to run back out to pick up her medicines, and by that time, a fever had me in its grasp and I was not feeling well at all. I came home, somehow managed to eat lunch in between shivers, and laid down with Baby B to try to get some more rest. I think my fever broke recently, but The Husband’s fever has come and gone over the past few days, so I’m not expecting it to be gone forever. I’m going to have to stop in at the office and pick up a few things to do at home, but at least for the actual work days I don’t need to be in the rest of the week, so that’s helpful and hopefully I will avoid contaminating my coworkers. I just hope I’m feeling better so I can take good care of Baby B. Thankfully The Husband seems to be on the mend for the most part, so that should help out quite a bit too.