Last Saturday Grace started running a fever of about 101.7. It kept coming right back up as soon as the Motrin wore off, and Sunday she started complaining about her throat hurting, so I started thinking strep. She basically just laid around Saturday and Sunday, taking a bunch of naps and generally looking dull and sick. I made an appointment for her Monday for right after my non-stress test, so we hung out at Bethesda together for the morning. The tech did a rapid throat culture, although I'm not really sure how thorough of a job she did on the swab itself. The doctor saw how red her throat was, with little white spots on it which even I had been able to see on Sunday, and she agreed it definitely looked like strep. But the rapid test came back negative. So the doctor did her own swab (much more thorough), and we waited for the rapid test for that one too--also negative. They were going to culture the first swab for 24 hours, but the doctor did something practically unheard of in military medicine--she started Grace on antibiotics anyway! She looked back at her records and saw that the last time Grace had actually been on antibiotics was when she was 20 months old and had an ear infection, where her eardrum ruptured, while we were at my parents' house for Christmas. So yeah, she's not really in danger of having too much unnecessary antibiotics or anything. Still, I was so surprised! So we got the meds and started her on them right away, and by Tuesday morning, she was feeling tons better, and her throat wasn't hurting anymore. She still had to miss co-op, but hey, she was at least feeling better! Oh, the 24 hour culture was negative too--so who knows if it was actually strep? She certainly responded to the medicine though, so I'm not sorry about giving it to her.
I was definitely concerned when Faith, Micah, and Drew all started running fevers Tuesday afternoon as Rivendell was winding down. Ummm . . . how was I going to get all of them in for appointments?? My week was pretty packed! But then I realized that they were all just sick in a different way than Grace was. Drew definitely had some kind of head cold thing, with a runny nose. I wasn't concerned about that, although it did make him exceptionally crabby. Faith and Micah didn't really have that, but their fevers weren't as high, and they just didn't act as sick as Grace did. So I decided to just wait it out, and I was glad. They were both fine by Thursday, which was good, since Faith had her first little art/science co-op that afternoon. She definitely didn't want to miss that, and I didn't want to either, since I was teaching the science part that day. We walked around the church, identifying the different trees and talking about leaves and so on. It was fun, although very hot and humid. I was melting!
Nathan started running a fever Wednesday night, which really worried me, since he took the ACT for the last time this morning. But he went to bed early that night, slept for 12 hours, and was much better Thursday. He was able to go to calculus as well as cross-country practice. Bob, Luke, Caleb, and Anna have also been dealing with the head cold thing/allergy thing, with lots of sniffles and sneezing. No fever though, and Caleb and Anna were well enough to come with me to the commissary on Friday, and Luke ran in a cross-country meet this morning. I guess Jonathan is the one completely healthy kid!
So far the Lord has protected me--may He continue to do so! I've actually been knocking things off my to-do-before-baby-comes list, and I hope I can stay healthy! Today was a surprisingly productive day. I (and Anna, my helper who loves to organize) put away all the groceries from the commissary (no small feat--$800 worth!), cut up several cuts of meat to freeze to use in various recipes, made a much wider and cleaner path through the garage (did not "clean the garage", however, lol--that was a bridge too far), cleaned out the big van (which hadn't been cleaned since before out big trip to Boston the end of July, and I was worried people were going to start sticking to the floor or something since it was so dirty and crumbly), washed all the newborn girl laundry including carseat covers, cleaned Bruno's cage, and got the guest bedroom and bathroom in the basement in order, in preparation for my parents, who are coming on Thursday! Yay! Of course the main floor looks like a tornado ran through it . . . I can't get all 3 floors looking nice at the same time, due to the concentrated efforts of the girls, Micah, and Drew. That can be tomorrow's list, along with all my Rivendell prep for Tuesday!
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