Epidemic and the Power of the Priesthood!

Ugh! What a couple of horrible weeks it has been! I was so looking forward to celebrating Alex's first birthday and had been preparing for it for months. . . . then . . . . life happened. About a week before our birthday (as you may or may not know, Alex and I share a birthday) Alex starting getting a runny nose, a bad cough, and a slight fever. I didn't think too much about it until I contracted the same seeable symptoms along with a strew of others shortly thereafter. I also had a HUGE neverending headache, muscle and body aches, a sore throat, fatigue, fever and even a little nausea from time to time. My mother, God bless her soul, had been diagnosed with the swine flu and we had been lucky enough to be in contact with her at the wrong time. I concluded that my son and myself had contracted it as well (since our Dr's wouldn't test for it). Poor little bugger! He is SUCH a good baby, I hardly knew what he was facing. I had only been giving him ibuprophen at night before I knew how bad it was and I only survived by taking it around the clock. Anyway, it lasted a long time . . . I really didn't feel well for about seven days. Just as I was starting to feel better and thought that Alex was also improving, Eric was struck . . . just in time for our birthday. The good news was he stayed home from work that day . . . the bad news was he felt horrible the whole day and I tried to nurse him while being exhausted from being sick myself and nursing a sick baby as well. I actually cried the night before because I wasn't ready for Alex's birthday and knew it was not going to be up to my expectations. It wasn't . . I mean, Eric tried really hard to make it special despite feeling horrible himself, but I was so mad at myself for ruining our first child's first-ever birthday. Luckily, with Eric we knew what we were up against and got him Tamaflu right away and he was able to recover much more quickly.

The bad news was that Alex was fussy on his birthday and woke up about three times that night. I thought he just hadn't gotten enough sleep with all the excitment but awoke to find him with a fever of 102.5 . I gave him medicine and it went down and put him down for a nap. When he woke up it was back up to 103! I wanted to call the doctor but Alex had lost my phone! I searched high and low in a panic and could not find it anywhere!! I finally concluded that I just had to go in or try to see if my sister was home so I could use her phone. Luckily she was and I was able to make an appointment for that afternoon. During this time, Alex's fever reached a high of 103.9 on ibuprophen!!! He was lathargic and I was really worried. My sister pointed out he could take tylenol with ibuprophen and that FINALLY brought it down (thank heavens I had been forced to go to her house). The doctor confirmed we had probably had the swine flu and couldn't find any ear or throat infection so she sent him to have chest x-rays to see if it had turned into pnemonia. It was soooo sad to see our little baby strapped to a board like a mummy with his hands tied above his head so they could take the x-ray. All in all, he did really well and barely cried only when they turned him on his side. Luckily, it wasn't pnemonia and not knowing what was wrong, the Dr. prescribed antibiotics. I kept giving him tylenol and ibuprophen and also the antibiotics but that night the fever came back and wouldn't drop (it was staying around 103.5) even after I tried to give him a tepid spit-bath per instructions from my physician father. It wasn't until Eric gave him a blessing that the fever started to recede and Alex IMMEDIATELY fell asleep. It may or may not have been an emergency, but I definitely have a testimony about the power of the priesthood! I am also sooooo grateful I have a worthy priesthood-holder for a husband! Alex's birthday party I had planed with his friends was two days away and I felt it best to cancel it under the circumstances. Since then, he has been steadily improving so the flu must have turned into some kind of bacterial infection. My mother, on the other hand, was not so lucky and hers turned into pnemonia. She seems to be recovering as well.

Finally, all three of us were starting to feel better, I had one day to clean my house which was a mess, and we met with family to celebrate the birthdays. I love my brother Evan, but I swear his kids are little carrier monkeys! They came down with the stomach flu the day after we met and - surprise! half our family came down with it the day after that - including me! It was truly horrible - despite how bad the swine flu was, I still think I'd rather have that! Luckily it only lasted 24 hours and I shut myself in my room and made Eric stay home to take care of baby and stay away from me. They did not get it THANK HEAVENS. Unfortunately, Eric's new employers probably think we're either a bunch of hypocondriacs or that he's a major slacker because he's had to take three sick days (two for his illness, one for my stomach flu) and a weeks vacation (to cram for the CFA) off in his first month. I guess the funny side to the story is that this is the first year in YEARS that I had a flu shot and I managed to get the flu twice!

I still feel really bad about Alex's birthday but have been busy preparing for Eric's birthday this weekend. We're going to try to reschedule his birthday party with his friends when they all can make it again and I will have to make it up to him somehow - better late than never, right? Stay tuned for a birthday update! Oh . . . and I promise we're not contagious anymore!