Stay Away from this house!!

Why is it that everytime we go on a warm vacation, we come back and illness strikes??!! I'm not saying we will not be taking any more warm weather vacations again, but maybe a little airborne or something needs to be given to our children on our way home!! Ellie was the first to go down out of the kids! Last Friday she came home from school a little grumpier than usual and she felt a bit warm so I gave her a little Tylenol and by Saturday morning she was fighting with her brothers!! As we were about ready to leave for our friend's dinner party that night she started acting sick again, a little ibuprofen this time and she was good to go. Sunday morning she woke up feeling good so we went ahead with plans to help our dear friend Sharon celebrate her birthday with breakfast at the Sheraton and family time at our house. After we had been home for a bit, El just didn't look good - I took her temp and it was rising. (So sorry Sharon and family!!!!) By late afternoon El's temp was getting close to 105 F - a little too high for this mom!! She had no other symptoms that she was complaining about, so I checked her throat and low and behold, there were nasty little blisters glimmering at me - ouch!!! I gave her more Tylenol and dosed her up in the middle of the night until we could get to the SOS in the morning. The next morning we walked into the SOS, which thankfully is in our backyard! It was pretty crowded so we had to wait a little while to see the doctor. Because it was the last day of Chinese New Year, I had given my ayi the day off, so I had Coop in tow. He didn't seem to mind because he could play with the toys (I'm not even going to think about how many germs were on those toys!!)!! El laid on me the whole time so I knew she was definitely not getting better. By the time we got in to see the doctor, he took her temp and almost fell off his chair - it was back to 105. It was the quickest appointment I have ever been too - he asked her what hurt and she said her throat. He took one look at it and didn't even do a strep test, he just said she needs medication. He felt her stomach and back for any rashes - none there! We met with the pharmicist quickly and we were on our way with our sachets of antibiotics.

If you think getting a child to take medication is difiicult in the US, you have obviously not lived anywhere where they give you a sachet of granules to "mix with water". "How much water?" I ask..."Oh, just a little, it doesn't matter!". Great, I have a child with an extremely painful sore throat and they expect her to take this nasty tasting medicine. I use bribery as any good mom would. "Honey, if you take this entire dose of medication, mommy will buy you two cartons of ice cream at the store!" My little champ drinks the whole nasty thing and later we decide to put it into drinkable yogurt so it will be a bit more appetizing since we have to do this 3 times a day for 7 days!!

Ellie's temp thankfully starts going down by the afternoon and then I start feeling a bit under the weather. I don't think much of it...late night out, lots of fun with friends, sick child = a very tired mom!! By about 1:00 am I realize that I am not just tired - I have somehow picked up the stomach flu...yuk!!! I deal with the chills and little sleep for the rest of the night! The next day, all I can say is that I am so thankful to have full time help!! My ayi came and I literally slept from 9:00 until 3:00 when Danny came home and dragged me to the SOS.

I've decided that if you want some meds quickly, China is the place to be!! I see the same doctor I had seen the day before with El. Danny gives him a quick recount of my symptoms and he immediately says that they should hook me up to an IV. I have been sick for less than 24 hours at this point and am still able to drink a bit of water and this guy wants to hook me up - no way. I pretty much have to be as dry as can be for anyone to stick a needle in me!! I told him no thanks and he proceeded to prescribe all kinds of drugs. I am very thankful I am not against using drugs to help myself or my family feel better!!! So I come home with my bag of drugs which include, anti-nausea meds, probiotics, oral rehydration packets, and some other tummy stuff!! I did take a few of these cocktails and pretty much knocked myself out so I basically slept my illness away. I woke up briefly to eat and help Danny when Coop pooped in the tub (yes, he had the stomach flu and we had no idea!!) and then I went back to bed until 6:30 am. I felt better!!

Ellie continued to run a temp so I decided she should stay home another day with me. She also reminded me that she could actually help take care of me if I was still sick!! Too sweet and I am a sucker for being totally manipulated! Later in the afternoon I got a call from my friend Karen and she told me I should probably meet the bus because Eens didn't look so good after school. He got off the bus and couldn't make it to the bathroom - he had the stomach flu too!! After repeatedly going to the bathroom once we got home, it was decided that he would not go to school today.

I took El's temp again after the drama with Eens and it was still over 100. I know that is not so high, but having a temp off and on for 5 days really scares me, so I ran her back over to the SOS. This time we had to go through a triage to make sure that we were not dealing with bird flu. Since she had a fever and we had travelled out of the country in the last 14 days, we did get put into a room - just in case! We saw a different doctor this time who I thought was very thorough, probably because she knew I was concerned. She checked her over completely and said that her throat was still not good. She gave her some more meds and sent us home.

So today, we have enjoyed a pajama day and a get rid of the germs day. I changed all of the sheets, threw out toothbrushes, the cleaning people scrubbed the potties, and now I'm hoping we have gotten rid of the germs!! Eens seems to be on the mend, but is loving the Gatorade so he may be "sick" for a bit longer!! Ellie seems to be ready to go back to school - she is getting bored being at home and she was not real happy when I made her take a nap. Coop is completely healed and enjoying his brother and sister being home!! I'm feeling better, still a bit tired (I'm not sure a mom can ever heal completely when she is also taking care of sick children - their needs always come first!!), but I'll rest more over the weekend!! And tomorrow, if all goes well, I've booked myself a facial with an eye relaxing massage (which I highly recommend!!)!! I think I deserve it!!

I don't mean to leave out Danny, because he helped as much as he could, but thankfully he was given a pass on this round of illnesses! He had to leave last night to go to TEDA to meet with a bunch of execs that flew over from the US!!

Hope you are all well and fighting off all of the germs coming your way!! Ellie did remind me that last year all three kids got sick at the same time too and it was also in February - so cute that she remembered!! Love and miss you all, especially our moms who used to drive to our house and help when I was sick!!