Doosey Few Days!

It's been a DOOSEY of a couple days since my last post. On Monday, Wyatt had a fever and runny nose. But a little Tylenol and he seemed to be okay. Then on Tuesday, the nurse at Megan's school called to say Megan was in the office with a 102 fever! I went and picked her up and she came home and took a 3 hour nap! When she woke, she said she felt much better. But I could tell she still wasn't her 100% happy go-lucky self.

Wednesday we all took a personal day. Both girls stayed home from school and none of us got dressed until almost lunchtime. Everyone got their dose of medicine with our lazy day breakfast of Ruffles, onion dip and Diet Coke! Then we spent the morning finishing packing up our Boo! Bags and watching episode after episode of Hannah Montana. After naps, we delivered our bags around town and by that evening I felt everyone was on the mend.

Thursday Molly went to school, but Megan didn't. She still wasn't 100% and I didn't want to push it, knowing all that the weekend ahead held for us. Kate and Paul flew in Wednesday night and in the next four days we had a football game, pumpkin carving, trick or treating, and K&P's California reception. I chose not to give anyone Tylenol Thursday in an attempt to see if everyone was really at the end of thier respective yuckiness.

Turns out Munchie WAS NOT on the mend! By the end of Daddy's game on Thursday night he had taken a turn for the worse. He was so much not himself, and SO HOT to the touch, that I went straight from the game to the ER with him, while Mateo took the girls home.

I decided to valet my car, since it was 10:30 at night and I didn't want to deal with a sick kid and a dark parking structure all alone. Before I had even stepped out of my car, the valet asked me "Are either you or the baby coughing and have a fever?" YES! I said. That's exactly what Wyatt was. The valet's eyes got real big and he directed to me a make shift station set up OUTSIDE the entrance to the ER. I saw him don latex gloves and a mask before getting into my car armed with a sack of sanitary wipes that he used to clean the door handle, steering wheel, and parking brake before touching any of it!

That was my first clue that I wasn't the only one in this town with a sick kid. My second clue was the station I mentioned before. A folding table and chair set up outside in the cold, with a nice orderly (albeit shivering and teeth chattering) ready to ask me a handful of questions. As I answered YES to each one, he smiled nicely and handed me masks, gloves, and sanitary wipes for both me and Wyatt. All of which we had to use/put on before we could enter the ER doors!

You can imagine the looks I got when I walked through the doors with a flushed, lethargic, coughing, MASKED kid at 10:30pm. People literally got up and moved to the other side of the waiting room when I sat down. The good news was, they took us right in!

Wyatt was lethargic and tired and I'm sure, feeling like crap! Plus he's just two, so it was a nightmare trying to get him to cooperate. He wouldn't keep his mouth closed over the thermometer long enough to get an accurate reading. So they had to take it in his bum. Poor little guy. He kicked and screamed and tried to swat at the nurse, telling her "I don't like that!"

Wyatt's temp was 104.7, which got all the nurses buzzing right away. They stripped him down, put cold compresses on his bare body, and pumped him full of Tylenol AND Motrin within 5 minutes of finding out this news.

Again, poor little guy. He just didn't understand ANY of it! His body was covered in beads of sweat and yet he was shivering. He didn't want to wear the mask (until I told him Diego wears one when he Drs. his animals) and he wouldn't drink the medicines, so they had to give them to him with a syringe. Then we laid in a bed his naked body on top of me, covered with just a sheet, waiting for the Dr to see us.

(OMG I was so tired in this pic. HUGE dark bags and blood shot eyes!)

The Dr checked his ears and throat and lungs and ordered a barrage of tests to rule out Croup, Swine Flu, Pneumonia, and Bronchitis. The worst was when they had to stick this long tube up his nose and flush it with some sort of solution. He literally sneezed it all back out all over the nurse! She just laughed and told him he was her easiest patient yet. I guess by sneezing he gave her a huge amount of gunk to stick under the microscope! Second worse was that between each test, we'd wait about 30 minutes, so he would completely calm down and fall asleep on me only to be woken up again.

He was such a trooper through it all. Each time I would wake him up he would sit up, all wet and sweaty and wave to the nurse and say "Hi! I'm all done, right?!" When she would say "No, one more thing....can I just...." he was smile and say "Okay" and then calmly lay there while they poked and prodded and asked him to open wide. I couldn't believe how cooperative he got once his fever started to go down.

By 2:30AM all the tests had come back NEGATIVE except for pneumonia and his fever was down to 100. They gave him another dose of Tylenol and said if the pneumonia test came back negative too, then he was just a really healthy little boy with a bad viral infection his body was trying to fight with a fever. I was just glad it wasn't Swine Flu! About 10 minutes later, the last test came back negative too. So the Dr. wrote him a prescription for some cough medicine and sent us on our way.

When I woke him up to tell him it was time to get dressed and we were all done, he put his arms in the air and said "YAY! I all done! I so brave Mommy!" It made me tear up. I think I was deliriously tired and emotionally drained at this point, but still. He was the cutest, sweetest, bravest thing EVER and in that moment I just wanted to eat him up. I mean look - 3AM and he's smiling like this!

We got to throw our masks in the trash and leave the ER looking somewhat normal. He proudly showed the nurse at the front desk his "bracelets" (ID arm bands) and told everybody within ear shot "I brave! I wear mask like Diego! I all better. I go home!" While we waited for the valet to bring around the car, he eyed the vending machines. It was 3:15am and I let him buy (and eat) Cheetos and Berry Life Savers. He could've asked for a puppy and I probably would have given it to him in that moment.

We got home to find Daddy sleeping on the couch, trying to wait up for us. Wyatt woke him up and showed off his bracelets and told him all about his ordeal. Then in mid sentence he said "Daddy, I want to snuggle you." So they did. By 4am we were all asleep in our big bed.

The morning brought a much happier little boy! He still had a fever most of Friday and Saturday, but his demeanor was so much better than it had been Thursday night. He rallied both nights for Punkin Carving and Trick or Treating and made the CUTEST Diego ever! He loved his costume and kept looking at me and saying "Mommy, you make it! I like it!"

Melt.My.Heart.

Jack o' Lantern and Trick or Treating pics and stories tomorrow. Today is Kate & Paul's California reception. My mom has planned a Dia De Los Muertos party that is over the top! (Shocker....now you know where I get it from.) So we are headed to my parents house for tacos, chips and salsa, Sangria, made to order margaritas, homemade guacamole, and Mariachi music! I can't wait to show you all the decorations. My mom is the bomb when it comes to obsessing....er, I mean, implementing a THEME! Here are two sneak peeks!