Thursday, January 20, 2011

Take two steps back

My whole family is in various stages of sick.  All 5 of us, including my 16 year old stepdaughter who is only with us on the weekend.
It all started last Saturday night when hubby came home feeling off.  He langusihed on the couch all night and most of the next day.  Some how he dragged himself to my son's away game even though he was coughing and aching everywhere.  I would've taken him but I was obligated to taking our 6 year old daughter to the rink for her 2 lessons and competition practice.  I even offered to make a few calls and have another parent take him.  I would've just suggested he stay home but the team only has two goalies and the other goalie wasn't going.  We believe that our children need to commit to their sport and support their team unless they are sick or their grades are suffering.
Not only did hubby drive an hour to the game but then proceeded to coach one of the groups of kids.  My son's mites team is large and under USA Hockey they only play cross ice games so they split up into 2 teams and played what they call a "Jamboree" of games for 2 hours.  My husband froze on the ice cold bench.  The rink they were at was somehow colder than ours.  By Sunday night he had a fever and was miserable.  Of course, he still refused to closet himself in our bedroom for his health and ours.  He dragged himself to work at 4 a.m. on Monday and dragged himself back home at 2 (normally its 6).  He dozed off and on on the couch and actually agreed not to go into work on Tuesday.  Tuesday we were hit with a storm but he was able to get into the doctors early.  She said he has a very nasty, highly contagious virus.  She gave him Tamaflu which we couldn't get for 2 reasons....1) He told her it started Sunday when in fact it was Saturday.  Tamaflu is only effective when used within the first 48 hours and 2) Our insurance requires a deductable, so we have to pay the full cost of medication which is $90.  He did get a Zpac and another script that cost us $50. 
Now it's Thursday and he's back to work finally.  He's not 100% but he's getting there.  Unfortunately, the symptoms hit the rest of us Wednesday.  Well, I actually started feeling achy on tuesday night.  I got the call from school within an hour of it starting that DD6 had a temp of 102.  The para in my son's class happened to be in the nurses office and said that DS8 seemed off too.  So, we had him come down.  He didn't have a fever but he did look like he hadn't slept in days.
My poor daughter has had a fever ranging from as high as 103.1 to as low as 100.5 with pain reliever.  She also has an ear ache.  Both kids have a sporadic cough.  Unfortunately, I ache everywhere so I can barely get up and down the stairs.  I'm hoping everything is better in the morning because we are getting another storm tonight and I fear even if I feel better I won't be able to get them to the doctor.
My stepdaughter was over this weekend and she's got it too.  A headache, body aches and a low grade fever.  We're all miserable.  And she put it so eloquently on Facebook...My whole family is sick because my daddy likes to share.  I love that girl and her sense of humor!
So, before you get to close to any of us.....remember to take two steps back!  Otherwise we will show you that sharing is caring.