I cannot go to (school, work, daycare) today.

Every year, I hope and pray that my girls stay healthy in the winter. Every year, I start out thinking it isn't going "too bad" with the illnesses, but then whammo: February hits and all hell breaks loose on the sickness front.

Let us start with Kyla. Poor, sweet, angelic 21 month old Kyla girl. She has had a hell of a time over the past year -starting LAST January (2010) into the present with her chronic ear infections. She was my "ear girl" and up until last month's tubes surgery, she was dealing with ear infections every 1-2 months. Along with that ears, she'd occasionally get some sort of gastro-intestinal (aka POOPY) infection, and we'd be dealing with a red tushie, pushing the water with probiotics, and praying for a healthy tummy.

After she got her tubes, things were sailing along great until the past few weeks. Then, uh oh. She started coughing. And coughing. And coughing. She had a runny nose and the cough progressed greatly until last Monday (President's Day) - Mama's day off of work. I called into the nurse line for advice on the cough. I was told that unless she 1) had a fever or 2) starting having wheezing (labored) breathing to not worry about her. So Monday night after I called? She gets a fever of 101 and starts getting Wheezy breathing. Lovely. Poor baby.

CJ and I nebbed her, and then she woke up Tuesday with a fever, so I stayed home and brought her into the doctor. Dr. J. was great- she really listened to Kyla's chest for what seemed like forever. She could hear the "wheeze" and wasn't sure if she heard signs of pneumonia or not, but she had us get a chest Xray to see what things looked like. Of course, Kyla had a little "gray area' in her left lung, so Dr. J. put her on some medicine to get rid of that nasty pneumonia in her chest. The doctor said that pneumonia has been diagnosed like crazy the past few weeks- things have not been good in MN for little ones.

Through all of this, my little Kyla girl was a trooper. Hanging out in doctor's offices, and waiting rooms, and being drug through Target for her medications and nary a squeak of protest from her. She's a little ham. Poor baby is on her medication for a few more days, and in the meantime, the meds are causing her poops to be atrocious, so we're pasting her tushie up and giving her lots of food that binds (ie: bananas!).

Which then leads us to Keifer Lynn, shown below from last Wednesday night in the Urgent Care office with her sister (along for the ride). Yes, Keifer is having a nebulizer treatment in this picture.

So our Keifer girl seemed to be rolling right along this winter. She had a bout with pneumonia herself in December, but we were germ(sick) free over the holidays and January was (what CJ and I think) a stellar month of NO doctor visits!

And then came Wednesday. I called to check on Kyla at lunch, to make sure she was doing OK at daycare (she was) and Elaine told me Keifer was complaining of the chills, not feeling well, and coughing. She had a fever of 100 but Elaine was going to nap her, and CJ would pick the girls up after nap, as I had a night class I was taking at 3:45. Elaine called me after nap to inform me that Keifer woke up with a fever, and had a "Rash "of some sort all over her face (turned out to be hives from the fever). She has never had hives as a reaction to a fever before.
Daddy picked her (and sissy) up and headed straight to Urgent Care. I was in class. The wait was estimated 2+ hours (of being in the office total) so I planned on leaving class early to go get Kyla. Great. Keifer's oxygen levels were checked upon check in, and they were (what) they nurse called "very low" - a 90. Apparently anything under 92 is NOT a good thing? So they nurse told CJ that any lower and K1 would have been hospitalized. They nebbed her (see above picture) and her oxygen level seemed to go up some.

There was no sounds of crackling in HER lungs (whew) but she was having the labored breathing + the fever. So, we had instructions to give her her 2 nebulizer treatments every 3-4 hours, on top of the 2 different steroid and antibiotics she was given to clear up HER chest /coughing. If you could hear K1 cough, along with her sister, you'd think there were seals in our house rather than 2 young girls.

So our poor girls. Keifer continued to have a fever up until Saturday, so both CJ and I have missed a lot of work. K1 has been clingy and complaining of NOT feeling good - well, of course, with low oxygen levels, she has no energy. She's had huge black circles under her eyes, and becomes flushed with any sort of vigorous activity.

Needless to say, Mama & Daddy been stressed lately. All the sickness and missed work and medicines to keep track of on top of whiny and clingy children has been quite stressful lately. I just cannot wait for the bright, warm days of summer to be here- and pray for health and peace within our household.