Sick of Being Sick

February and March have been the months of sickness around here.  All six of us have struggled with various illnesses.  David is ALWAYS sick (which is why he has begun getting weekly allergy shots in an effort to find relief once and for all) so its hard to tell when or if he got the flu, but the rest of us did.  I was very sick for a few days, then the boys got it, followed by the girls.  In a matter of a week, I think we spent more than $200 on doctors visits and prescriptions.

Just when I thought we were over it, Bronson got sick again.  This time, it came on fast!  One minute, I put a healthy sleeping baby in his crib and 20 minutes later, he was trying to cry, but couldn't because he couldn't breathe.  I literally spent the next few days trying to care for and comfort him.  He was so, so sick.  He wasn't eating, and when he did eat a little bit, he threw it all up. His cough was painful to listen to and his lungs sounded very tight.  I "slept" on the couch with him, waking every hour to comfort him when he would cry and moan in misery. 

On Monday morning, we were waiting at the doctor's office when they opened.  The PA, a man in our ward, said he was almost positive that Bronson had RSV.  He said it made him feel claustrophobic to listen to Bronson breathe.  Just to be sure, he ordered an RSV test and CBC.  I don't even have to tell you how much fun it was to draw blood and extract mucus from a 5 month old baby.  YIKES!!

To every one's surprise, the RSV test came back negative.   It looked like a bacterial infection.  I was SO VERY HAPPY to hear that!  We did the RSV thing with Nicole when she was 10 months old, and I never want to go through it again.  Bronson was put on antibiotics and within a day, he was a whole new baby!  Thank heaven for antibiotics!  I honestly don't know if Bronson could have beat this bug without them.  Josh and Nicole were also prescribed antibiotics since they were both starting to cough again.  It was pretty humorous to walk up to the pharmacist and before I even said who I was, he said, "Here's the basket of medicine for the Gee family."  Yeah - we've been there that much!  And yeah - there was a whole basket of medicine.  Not only did three kids get antibiotics, but Bron had eye drops for his goopy eyes and suppository Tylenol since he kept throwing up the oral version. Fun.

But that's all behind us now.  No more illness for us, thank you very much!  We're healthy and we're gonna stay that way!