March 15, 2014

Hatfield Hell Weeks

Yea, that sums up the last 2 weeks. I'm not even sure where it started or who it started with, but all 5 of us had been hit by something that sucked. It probably started with Riley, which is usually the case since she is a daycare part-timer and constantly brings home kid germs. I'm thinking it all began with her perpetual runny nose and mild cold, which eventually hit Char. Char got the usual sore throat, mild fever...you know, just feeling like...blah. The real fear is keeping these bugs away from Caleb, which was hard to tell because he had several colicky sessions. Avery and I usually manage to fend of the daycare stuff...usually...

Anyhow, a cold seemed to hit me a week and a half ago as I fought the annoying clogged sinuses, itchy throat, feeling rundown, etc. It never seemed to hit me full force, which it usually doesn't anyhow. I'm thinking that it's a combination of my decent immune system and the fact that I eat Airborne all day during the annoying 2 weeks that this stuff seems to linger. But then things got real- Riley got a stomach bug. That started with her usual waking up in the middle of the night but this time it included vomit- like 4 rounds of vomit- 2 of which covered both of us! We got through that somewhat ok (mostly because of Char) only to have it come back a day later. I was home early from work on a Thursday (still a little under the weather) to help Char take care of the 2 cranky little ones. Riley surprised us with a big barf on the living room floor followed by an even bigger one on me while we were laying on the couch. We thought she was better. Guess not. Good times.

Then on a Friday, to complicate things even more, my usual lower right back pain escalated into lower right flank SERIOUS PAIN. I fought it through the weekend with a cold and a cranky Caleb and a recovering Riley. I don't think Char felt too great either so we had an awful weekend. Oh yea, during that time I had Avery for the week so I had to take her to her middle school city championship game on Friday night and travel soccer games on Saturday and Sunday. By the time Sunday night hit we were all exhausted. Char from carrying the load with the little ones, Avery from having 6 soccer games that week and myself from the debilitating flank pain and an annoying cold. But the cool thing was Avery's middle school team won the city championship! That was clearly the highlight of the last 2 weeks.  

Monday I got up still in serious pain but had to take Avery and our neighbor to school. I got into the doctor that morning only for them to not really know what was wrong other than it was not kidney stones. They set me up with pain killers and muscle relaxers and a return visit to the spine specialist. I'm pretty sure this pain is related to a lower back injury that I've been fighting for a few years now. Anyhow, the pills did not alleviate the pain at all- they only made me sleepy. Great. So Tuesday I got up still in pain but figured I'd go to work anyhow since I had to take the kids to school. When I went to check on Avery, she was still in bed but I noticed vomit all over her bathroom. Oh crap. Things are not good when Avery throws up because she faints beforehand. To make a long story short, Avery fainted 5 times that morning and couldn't keep anything down. She did, however, recover the next day but still stayed home from school. Her mom took her to the doctor to make sure this was nothing out of the ordinary (she was diagnosed with vasovagal syncope a few years ago) and to make sure she didn't hit her head when she fainted twice alone. Fortunately, we had her baseline concussion testing done last year for sports. She has to get retested Monday but unfortunately she cannot play soccer until then. She has 2 travel games in Gainesville today that she will now have to watch. Poor kid. That morning was absolute misery because I was in pain, semi-sedated, but totally freaked out by all of Avery's fainting episodes. Real stress.

Ok, so after 48 hours I stopped the pain meds because I was tired of being sleepy and because they were not helping the pain anyhow. I also needed to go back to work. Over the next few days the pain gradually decreased, which I was hoping and expecting that it would. But the story does not end here. Char started developing pain from breastfeeding and ended up seeing the doctor for antibiotics. And the 2 little ones were not sleeping at all. They were cranky as hell throughout the night. Paranoid that they could have ear infections since they seemed to have minor colds and had trouble sleeping, we took them to their pediatrician to double check and also give us peace of mind for the weekend. They both ended up clear- so I say money well spent on 2 co-pays to reassure us that they are not sick too. Things are finally starting to turnaround!

So here I am on a Saturday morning looking forward to a good weekend. Riley and Caleb did not sleep well last night but they are in good spirits now. Actually, all of us are on the backside of our individual misery...hopefully. The weekend weather looks great so I'm looking forward to playing outside! I know I have yard work on the slate today but hopefully I can find a little time to get on my road bike Sunday. We have a little shopping trip planned today- we need to get out of this damn house! Kentucky plays today in the SEC tournament and if they win and Florida wins that will mean a meeting in the SEC Championship tomorrow. That will be especially cool because my brother-in-law's family will be coming up to visit for the day from Gainesville and they are all Gators! Either way, Go Big Blue!    

I'm really not sure why after all this time I decided to hit my blog for this but when I recapped the past week or so in my mind- I thought I had to get it into words so that I could fully appreciate what we just endured. Not that this was anything that any other parents haven't been through, it was just that it was so much in such a short amount of time! We sure as hell earned some parenting stripes this week!