Sick Kiddos

My youngest daughter has had the flu and missed school all week.  My oldest was diagnosed with pneumonia yesterday.  Boy is it a festival of germs in my house right now.

Anybody want to come over?

I didn't think so.

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Clostridium Difficile Illness from Antibiotics and Hospital

If you've been in the hospital for more than a couple days and on multiple antibiotics, and then get home and within a few weeks start to experience major digestive upset, you might have contracted C. Diff. from the hospital or because of one or more of the antibiotics.  It is not pleasant at all if you have. 

I did after my hospital stay in May and let me tell you, I was beginning to wonder if I had irritable bowel syndrome or colon problems. I was looking up all kinds of things online for digestion, antibiotics, bacteria, www.supplementing.com/supplements/colon-cleansers/, etc. when I came across C. Diff (Clostridium difficile, often called C. difficile or "C. diff").  I knew right away it was exactly what I had.  The symptoms matched up completely.  No question.

It doesn't make sense that the cure for one illness creates another, does it?  It was awful.  The cure is another antibiotic.  How strange is that!?!

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House Full of Germs

The eczema is starting to go away.  I just have to keep my nails away from it!  That's the hardest part. 

I have two out of four kids sick today with my four-year-old looking like she's going to succumb to the virus next if her rosy cheeks are any indication.  She looks like she's overheating and in need of air conditioning rather than it being the middle of winter here. No need for a AC filter here...it's 40 degrees right now. She's definitely overheating though - she's running around in a tank top and underwear. So far, it's just a flush. She seems ok otherwise; she's dancing to the DVD "Hairspray".  

I've managed not to get the germs as bad as my other kids so far.  Must be the extra Vitamin C and Vitamin D I'm taking.  My husband brought these cooties into the house to begin with.  He was miserable with it.  Of course, any illness he gets seems to be REALLY bad.  Men can be such babies! 

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Neverending Sickness

Does it seem like illnesses are on a loop in your house? Cold on top of colds. I've had two respiratory infections already this Fall with the last one knocking me on my backside for a couple days. All of my kids have had colds already with my youngest seeming to have one continuous one since school started!

Last night, my oldest child vomited. Just once. No fever. No aches. She had cramps, got sick, and then was fine. Must've been something she ate? Today my stomach is so cramped, it is making me nauseous. This is my second bout with some type of stomach virus (or food irritant) this Fall too. What's the deal?

I do not like the summer months but boy would I like them back about right now just to get these germs away from us!

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It feels good to kick the sickness

I am finally on the back end of this respiratory infection I had. I don't think it was the flu, though I never did take my temperature. Between the head and chest pressure and the sore throat, it was a miserable past few days! My asthma doesn't do well when I get a cold and this was definitely not an exception. My chest felt very heavy for a couple days. I'm glad it's over!

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Cold & Flu Season Hard on Asthmatics Like Me

Has any household escaped the cold and flu season so far this year? It sure does seem to be starting early. I just had one cold a couple weeks ago and now I have another. The same for my youngest daughter (who gave them both to me by the way).

With asthma being prevalent in my family (my oldest and I both have it), I'm wondering what I can do to reduce the amount of cold and flu occurrences in the house. Each cold seems to hit me harder than normal because of my damaged lungs.

We live near a grain elevator and you would not believe the daily dust in our house! (Kind of scary thinking about how much we are inhaling into our lungs now that I think about it.) It's crazy dusty in our house. I was telling my husband today about a central vacuum, wondering if it would help with the overload of dust we get in our house. Might just help my asthmatic lungs too!

You'd think with all the scientific knowledge in this world, there would be a cure for asthma by now. Do you ever wonder if there IS a cure for some of these life-threatening diseases and the government and Big Pharma just aren't letting us know because illness is a big money-maker for Big Pharma? I'm not usually one for conspiracy theories but I really wonder in the medical field if there isn't a little somewhere.

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H1N1, School Freaks Out Over Asthma Cough

Is the H1N1 bug as bad as the government is making it out to be? What's your opinion? Is it as dangerous as they say or is it a ploy from Big Pharma and the government to make money? Is it worse than the basic flu that hits the masses every year about this time?

My 12-year-old daughter has asthma. Every year about this time, she gets an asthmatic cough that lasts a few weeks. With the weather changes and all the corn being cut down right now, she has that barky cough right now (no fever). I remember during Halloween last year, she barked all through trick-or treat. It's that time of year for her. Unless or until she develops a fever, it's her asthma. She went to school today and they ended up calling me to come get her. She still doesn't have a fever but they're panicking over the cough. "OMG, H1N1. LET'S ALL PANIC."

Ugh.

Let's not all freak out people! If she had a fever, then I would have kept her home. If this is her asthma cough, it lasts about a month. Am I supposed to keep her home from school for a month for something that isn't contagious because people are panicking?

She missed pre-algebra today (as well as other classes but pre-algebra is an honors math class and she needs to be there to understand what they're learning). She has to be home for 24 hours to see if a fever develops. So she'll miss a second pre-algebra class tomorrow and probably not be able to cheer for her last football game because of the rules about having to be in school the day of the games.

Now if she develops a fever, then she'll stay home until she hasn't had a fever for 24 hours but I don't think it's right that they kicked her out of school when she's not showing symptoms of having the flu! I know a lot of kids have the flu right now (whether it is H1N1 or not remains to be seen) but she has no fever!!

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Egypt's Pig Slaughter

There is a massive pig cull going on in Egypt right now. At first, it was said to be because of the swine flu (of which there are no cases in Egypt as of yet) and then later said to be done as a general health measure. It's expected to take about a month to kill the 300,000 pigs they plan to kill.

• The UN calls this measure a mistake and unnecessary.
• Pig-farming and consumption in Egypt is done by the 10% christian population. Huh, is it a health measure or a religious matter? My first thought when I read this point was that I hoped it wasn't being done because they're christians.
• Egyptian government is being criticized for doing this.

The swine flu, a mix of pig, bird, and human. Is there going to be a massive bird cull too? Perhaps the terrorists can use this too as an excuse for their murder and terror around the world against humans - human culling.

To keep up-to-date on the status in the United Stated, the stats, and other information, are here. The TIME article is here.

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Illness Strikes Again

My three year old, who had the flu last month, now has something else. She's miserable with a high fever and some coughing. She is so out of it. She ran the fever through the night with fast breathing and fast heart rate. When she woke up this morning, she was trembling on top of everything else and just extremely "blah". Given how out of it she was, I decided to take her right into her pediatrician's walk-in clinic they have before normal hours. I carried her everywhere because she was woozy to walk. She fell asleep on the way there, in my arms at the doctor's office, and again on the way home. This is so unlike her (and she's sleeping now too). I hope her body is fixing these germs as she sleeps. We did get an antibiotic and I started her on that right away.

I hope she feels better tomorrow. I figure she'll miss her preschool Halloween party at school but trick-or-treat is tomorrow night here (instead of Friday, October 31st because that would make too much sense). She'll be devastated if her brother and sisters leave her behind to trick-or-treat. She picked out a beautiful little princess gown to be Barbie and with her long blonde hair, she'd make a great Barbie. The dress even lights up.

I hate seeing my kids this miserable:( I hope the others don't get this too. I probably will because when I was holding her and she had her head on my shoulder, she coughed and I was in the middle of talking - yup, germs right in my mouth. Yum! Eww!

I am supposed to get an ultrasound done tomorrow (no, I am not pregnant) looking for a reason for a lot of pain I've been in, but if she's still this sick, I guess I will be rescheduling it.

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They don't listen and they're big babies!!

If you read my post yesterday about the flu hitting our house, you'll know that I've been using lemon juice to settle my stomach and it's been working (unless it is mind over matter but I think it's the lemon juice). I tried telling my husband that yesterday evening when he woke up from sleeping all day with the flu (while he was whining on the couch about how sick he was) to drink lemon juice and water. His response was "I don't like it." Well, then lay there and whine on the couch like a baby. I asked him if he wanted me to call his mommy for him to take care of him.

Everytime I feel nauseous or stomach crampy, I take a drink of lemon juice water and it settles it down. Why is he being so stubborn that he won't even try it? He eats all those cardboard tasting exercise/protein bars all the time but he can't put a couple tablespoons of lemon juice in a bottle of water and drink it? Oy!

Then he eats two blueberry danishes last night (that I'd made for the kids while I had the flu!) and then he comes to bed complaining about how they feel in his stomach. Um, hello! You have the flu! Geez.

I refuse to baby him. I am now on my 4th kid with the flu in a week. I will baby them:)

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My Flu Cure?

Well, out of my four kids, I still have three down with the flu. Two of them are on the tail end of it and should be good to go soon but my oldest has just started showing symptoms so I expect it'll be about four days out for her now too. My husband and I woke up with it yesterday. I thought a few days ago that I was coming down with it but I knew for sure yesterday morning. Hard to deny the evidence when you lose your breakfast. TMI eh?

I am experimenting with something. I don't like regular water. I usually drop 1-2 tbsp. of lemon juice into my water when I drink it. Well, I started doing that when the stomach pains started to hit and I found that it quieted them down. I wasn't rolling around in pain like my kids were. They won't drink it (we'll see if my daughter still feels that way tomorrow when it gets really bad for her). My husband doesn't believe me and he's miserable with the flu symptoms, sleeping and taking flu meds and still tossing his cookies. I haven't taken any flu meds and haven't tossed my cookies since I started my "thing" - just lemon juice in my water whenever I start to feel stomach pain or nausea. I had to hit the grocery store this morning because we were out of a lot of the basics since I've not been able to get out with the kids being so sick since last week. I did it but got real nauseous until I could get home and take my lemon juice/water - - then I wasn't so nauseous anymore. I made my kids lunch and filled the dishwasher. Now I am sitting here typing this. I don't feel 100% and I am still going to limit myself to what I do so I don't overdue it because the dizziness and nausea is still right around the corner (I can feel it), but "something" seems to be minimizing my symptoms for me.

I wonder if it's the lemon juice in water? Maybe it is just mind over matter. I don't know. I'd rather be feeling halfway human than at death's door like my husband looked this morning before he went to bed and not a peep from him since.

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The Flu Already!!

My house is one big flu infested structure, complete with three out of four kids with fevers and yakking. Last night, I had two of them who seemed like they were taking turns. My 3yo would wake up and start yakking. I would get her cleaned up and back to sleep only to hear my 7yo upstairs yakking. Off I run upstairs to help her (clean her up since apparently she can yak with her eyes open and still be standing up asleep). I send her back to bed and go back downstairs to find my 3yo sitting up in bed throwing up all over herself. *sigh* For the 3yo alone, we were up seven times last night. My laundry pile is just wonderful since she doesn't give any notice when she has to get sick!

Now my stomach is starting to hurt. It seems mom can't escape the flu germs with so many of them flying around this house right now. My son missed three days of school this week because of them. Poor kids.

I don't want to do anymore icky laundry, scrub carpets, linoleum, and couches anymore. The flu can just get the heck out of my house. Now! I didn't expect to see viruses like this for a couple more months.

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My Frog Hurts

My three-year-old tossed and whined all night. Something was bothering her but she wouldn't tell me what. Her head was cool but her bare feet were really hot so I wasn't sure if she had a fever or not through the night (and thanks to the kids, our thermometer went missing). Hot feet? I dunno! That's a new one on me and I thought I'd seen everything seeing as she is our sixth between our kids and my stepkids. She couldn't get comfortable for nothing. A few times, I had to pull her back from the edge of the bed before she'd rolled herself off of it. I didn't want to add concussion into it if she hit the wall or dresser. Through the night she would sit up and put her hands below her mouth...I thought she was going to yak.

When she woke this morning, I asked her if anything hurt. Lo and behold...she's talking now! *sigh* She said her frog hurt and that she had a frog in her throat. OK, I take that to mean she has a sore throat in three-year-old speak (she's adorable even when she's sick...my frog hurts). She also felt more definite like she had a fever when she woke up. No preschool for her today. Throughout the morning, her cough has increased.

She started pre-school last week. It didn't take two weeks for those school germs to get her. I expected this to happen since this is her first year of pre-school and her immune system is going to have to go through this but I was hoping it wouldn't start right away. It's still in the 90's here...I thought it'd wait until the weather cooled.

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A Child's Illness - Chronic Fatigue

About 1-1/2 years ago, our oldest daughter (she is 11 now, was almost 10 then) started falling asleep no matter where she was at or what she was doing. She'd fall asleep in school. She'd fall asleep in the car. She'd fall asleep at home. She even fell asleep with her face in her cereal! Her pediatrician thought it was possibly viral or atypical seizures so an appointment was made with a Neurologist. However before the appointment time came (it takes forever to get into see a Neorologist), the extreme fatigue stopped. It was thought then that it was viral.

Well, this past week, she became real sleepy again. She wants to sleep all the time. In addition to chronic fatigue, she has light sensitivity indoors and outdoors. Light gives her headaches. There is no fever, no cough - no other symptoms other than fatigue and light sensitivity. She had an appointment on Monday at her pediatrician's office with the nurse practitioner. She thought it could be a subclinical virus. They also did a rapid strep test which was negative. She said to bring her back Wednesday if she wasn't better. She wasn't so I made an appointment on Wednesday for her - which her pediatrician's office canceled because the doctor would be out of the office! GRRRRRR!!! No appointments available Thursday! So, we have an appointment tomorrow (Friday) with the pediatrician. I requested an actual pediatrician this time. No offense to nurses, but this is really serious to us and I want a doctor to see our daughter.

I sent her to school today (though I am expecting a phone call by mid-day or so to pick her up as I don't think she'll make it a full day). Yesterday, she had a period of time where she had more energy and stayed awake for several hours so I want her to go back into her normal routine today and see how she does. I also want to see how much is pre-teen drama mode to extend her illness and attention and how much is real. Sometimes, it is hard to tell with her. I don't want to minimize whatever is going on with her but I need to get a good gauge on how bad this still is for the doctor tomorrow. I need to know whether this is viral or something a neurologist or another specialist should be looking at. My neurotic fear is tumor or something along those lines. I've researched online and came up with something called hypersomnia. I don't know if hormones (puberty) can do this to this extent, but who knows. I sure don't. It doesn't seem like the doctors do either.

*sigh*

I guess we wait to see what tomorrow's doctor appointment brings. Probably blood tests for sure and possibly an appointment with a specialist. We shall see.

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