The Mac and Cheese Chronicles

Did I happen to mention who gave me the cold that stole my voice?  It was my wonderful first born, my oldest, the one who started it all, our Boo.  He started off with this coughing, sort of congested, hoarse throat thing.  He kept insisting on touching things, snuggling close to me, or coughing on me.  Try as I might, I couldn’t keep avoiding him and I got sick.  But before I did, he got pink eye.  Like every good parent, we sent him into further exile, made him wash his hands every 2 minutes and bundled him off to the doctor.  He came home in unusually high spirits.

"So Boo, do you really have pink eye?" I asked. 
"Oh yeah," he said.  "They gave me an oy-ee-intment." 
"An ‘oy-ee-intment’?" I said, stifling my laughter. 
"Yeah!  I’ve got to put it in my eye with a q-tip!,"  Boo exclaims, pretending to stab himself in the eye. 
"Eew.  Sounds gross," I said.
"Yeah!"

Boys!

Turns out, he also had the beginnings of an ear infection, but the doc said just wait and see how Boo’s own immune system handles it.  We were to call back if he developed a fever or sore throat and the doc would call in some Auntie Biotics.  By Thursday, Boo is complaining his throat hurts in the evening.  Friday, we try to get the meds prescribed.  Of course, the doc he saw isn’t working that day, nor are any of the pediatricians.  Side note- what in the world?!?  What kind of clinic doesn’t have peds working on Friday?  Wouldn’t that be a high volume day, as parents are worried about heading into the weekend?  The answer…a military clinic!!!!  Anyway…they insist on us bringing Boo in where they swab his throat and send him home. 

So we all survived the weekend, then I lost my voice and assigned Boo 2 extra math sheets for penance.  Boo wraped up his dose of eye oy-ee-intment and all is well.  My voice returned slowly, even though on Wednesday, my mother called and didn’t even recognize me.  Thursday I woke to find my left eye glued shut.  Great, now I’ve got the pink eye.  I assigned Boo 4 extra math sheets and went off to the doctor.  My doctor prescribes me – not a darn thing.  She informs me that most "pink eye" is viral, it’s probably going to get worse in a day or two and try not to rub it.  Great. 

I returned home and before I even get my coat off, the other shoe dropped. Phil told me that Boo’s culture came back positive for strep and that he needs Auntie Biotics.  Ok, so is your first question "Where have the lab results been for the last week"?  It was mine.  My second question was "What about the rest of us?"  Because of course, I’ve got what Boo had and now Pumpkin Girl is complaining of a sore throat, too.  A quick call to the clinic and we’re off for throat cultures for the lot of us.  Even Phil.

Sigh. 

I told the nurse twice that Pumpkin had a sore throat and a headache.  She told me twice that they don’t treat for strep in the throat, but against the possibility of rheumatic fever.  So even though Boo has strep, and she’s clearly sick, too, we went home without meds for Pumpkin Girl.  Of course, she was miserable last night.  Even Bip woke up with a fever last night and slept fitfully until it broke.  I’m worried that the culture results will be slow in coming back and that they both will suffer needlessly over the weekend.  I miss the days when they’d give you Auntie Biotics for suspected cases of strep and if the results were negative, you would just stop.  We’d all be well on our way to recovery. 

So Bip and Pumpkin have appointments this afternoon, where we will press the issue.  Sigh.

I think I need to go give Boo 6 more math sheets today for passing strep on to us. 

note:  I didn’t really assign Boo extra math.  Even if he did deserve it with his contagious self!

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I’ve lost my voice!  I’ve looked everywhere for it, but’s gone.  I’m not talking a little hoarse here, either.  Nope -completely. gone.

Phil’s taking a week off of work after finally finishing his school, so he’s here to help with the kids.  He even took over the reading for school today, which, if you’re familiar with Sonlight, is alot of reading.  There’s absolutely no way I could have gotten through it.

He found me a bike bell to ring if I need something, though right now, Bip has walked away with it.  Before that, I’ve been whistling or snapping if I need to get someone’s attention.

I’d be starting feel like quite the princess, ringing bells and snapping fingers to have people do my bidding, the only problem is, my lost voice was caused by a cold of sorts.

It’s not the worst cold ever, besides the whole I-can’t-talk thing.  I’m just sort of congested, and have a slight cough, though I’m starting to feel fatigued.  I hate that worn out feeling that being sick causes.

I was doing so well this season, too.  I’m usually the victim of one cold after another, with some gastro-intestinal flu thing thrown in for good measure.  But this year, the feast of St. Blaise, patron saint of throats, fell on a Saturday.  We were at Mass that day and all got our throats blessed, even Bip, who thought it was very amusing. Usually there are up to 4 other homeschooling families there at the Saturday evening Mass, but not that day.  While all the other families suffered through illnesses this winter, ours was untouched.  We chalked it up to St. Blaise. 

Well, I guess he held off the germs as long as he could and I am grateful for that.

I can’t believe I’ve lost my voice.  It’s really annoying me!

The only fun thing about this whole thing is that when I whisper to Bip, he will whisper back to me.

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