Winter, winter go away...come back another day

2 weeks ago all the kids started getting sick...croupy coughs at night, running noses during the day; just the general cold running through our home. We were headed to NC on Thursday morning and late Wednesday night Connor got out of bed and came to me so I could help him scratch a massive itch. Upon closer inspection he had a rash all over his stomach, back and arm pits. I figured our trip would be delayed by a Dr appt Thursday morning, but we were pleasantly surprised that the rash appeared to be gone by the morning. So off to NC we went.

We had a nice visit with my parents, although it was colder than we thought it was going to be. On Sunday, my brother, his wife and 2 children came to see us. Unfortunately, my brother was sick so they did not stay long as he was feeling bad and the weather was getting bad....was pretty icy.

Within an hour or two after my brother leaving Al started complaining of a sore throat. Then his stomach was upset so he headed to bed. A lot happened Sunday night. At 3am I woke to Al making unpleasant noises in the bathroom. His stomach was really topsy-turvy and he had a fever. Then we woke to 4 inches of snow on the ground. We were not able to leave NC on Monday like we had planned. Al spend the day in bed, unable to eat anything and barely keeping down small amounts of fluid.

I pushed Al to get in the car and go home on Tuesday (we had to get back home, Al had work to do, we did not have our school supplies with us, we missed piano lessons, 2 dental appts...it was time to go!). When we arrived home he fell onto the sofa and did not move all night. Wednesday morning he made an appt with his Dr but the earliest he could get was 3:30pm. We were pretty certain he had strep throat so we needed to get him started on antibiotics.

By 10:00am Al knew he could not wait until 3:30 to be seen as he had developed quite a rash and was starting to panic over feeling so bad. So he opted to go to the emergency room. Unfortunately, when you have 4 kids it's hard to find a baby sitter at the last minute, especially if you might have some contagious or potentially harmful to another floating through your house. So I dropped him off at the front door of the hospital and told him to call me when he was ready to be picked up.

It was determined Al had scarlet fever and because he has spent the past 4 days unable to eat or drink he was severely dehydrated. So they opted for IV antibiotics and fluids and some good pain meds for the all over aches and pains and seriously sore throat. The good news is Al has recovered...he's still weak, definitely not back to 100% but gaining a bit more strength every day.

When I went to pick Al up at the hospital I realized that the rash Connor had had the week before was the same rash that Al has. So Thursday morning I took all the kids to the Dr for strep tests. It's amazing but none of the kids had it. The nurse said this was a weird case because normally children ages of 3-17 get strep and scarlet fever, not adults. Al was the only one in the family to have it, though.

And we missed the snow in MD while we were in NC. The kids have been waiting all winter for a decent snow and while we were in NC the "biggest snow storm in 3 years" blew through MD and dropped 7 inches. We only had 4 inches in NC and it was gone pretty quick, but Mamaw & Papaw hit Walmart and bought boots and gloves for everyone so the kids could enjoy it for the short time it lasted.

We're just getting back on track and feeling like we're recovering from a hard 2 weeks so we'll see what comes next....spring, please get here QUICK! We're so ready for winter to be over!