First, Second, Third, Fourth, or Fifth Disease?

That’s right, we were hit with a case of Fifth Disease this week.  Monday evening Will started feeling a little warm.  He had a fever all day Tuesday and had to miss school.  You could tell he didn’t feel well at all.  He totally knows what we do when you’re sick though.  Tuesday morning he told me he wanted to lay on his monkey pillow on the couch, with the blanket, and watch TV.  He might have secretly been happy to be sick and be able to watch TV in the morning. 

His fever lasted all day but pretty much broke on Tuesday evening.  Unfortunately we all had to skip swimming lessons on Tuesday.  Drew was out of town all day so I couldn’t even leave Will with him and just take Lindy.   Wednesday he woke up and had apparently turned the faucet in his nose on because it was running fast all day.  He developed a little cough and it seemed like he just had a little cold.  He was up and playing so we did go to music class – even though we probably shouldn’t have!

Since he hadn’t had a temp since Tuesday night I sent him to school on Thursday, even though I knew he wasn’t 100%.  He has so few days of school left that I didn’t want to him to miss school.  When I picked him up his cheek was red.  I asked what happened and his teacher said she thought he had hit himself with a book.  Will told me he ran into a table.  I didn’t know who to believe!  His cheek stayed red all day though and then when he woke up Friday morning, both cheeks were bright red.  At this point I knew something was up.  I did a quick internet search on cold like symptoms with red cheeks and sure enough, Fifth Disease popped up. His symptoms were to a T what I saw on the internet.  It said the rash would start on his cheeks and continue on his body. 

Sure enough, Saturday morning he woke up with red spots on his arms and legs, confirming Fifth Disease.  Just call me Dr. Southern!  I didn’t take him to the doctor because it’s viral and they can’t do anything but I’m 100% sure that is what he had.  It does say that once you get it you don’t usually get it again, so we can check that off the list!

Because he was sick, we had a fairly quiet week.  Lindy went to school as normal and had a good week.We did go to swimming lessons on Thursday afternoon.  Our 9th wedding anniversary was on Wednesday, May 11th, but because he was sick we didn’t go out to celebrate.   We went to the District Family Gathering on Thursday for Drew’s work.  We had dinner and then the DS was talking and the kids wouldn’t be quiet so I ended up taking them on a walk around the church.

Friday Lindy had an ophthalmology appointment, which thankfully Drew remembered because I would have totally forgotten it.  We had to wait 40 minutes to be called back but we went straight in the room once we got called back (instead of stopping at the pediatric waiting room).  It was a bit of a waste of time, except that she showed Dr. Weaver she could read the little picture eye chart.  She saw all the way down to 20/30 – the only problem was that she was less than an inch away from the paper.  But he was very happy that she could do that.  He put a patch on the left side of her glasses and tried to get her to read it with her bad eye.  She wouldn’t do it.  She was more concerned about the patch.  I told him I thought she could do it though.  Later he asked me if we still patch her.  I said yes but I admitted that we only do it about twice a week.  He said to keep doing it to try and save any residual vision she might have in her right eye.  I then told him that when we do patch her that we see no difference.  I don’t think he really believed me.  So then he put the patch over her eye, not just her glasses and had her read the chart.  She was really concerned with the patch itself and she didn’t willingly look at the chart but once we got her attention, she read us some of the pictures.  He didn’t push her down to the end, but she proved she has vision out of that eye!  I hope that made him happy!  I’ve been telling him for years that she has vision in that eye!  He made the statement that she seems cognitively fine, that her sensories took the hit in the NICU.  We used to see him every 2-3 months and I got him to agree to 4 months.  This time he went with 5 months.  She’s proving that she is doing well and we don’t need to waste $25 every 2-3 months. 

Will slept horribly all week.  He sleeps so bad when he has a fever.  Whenever we give him medicine he breaks the fever and then wakes up wet and MAD!  Even when the fever was gone he had trouble sleeping.  Drew and I took turns with him in the guest room so that someone could at least sleep.  He has been a grumpy little dude this week. 

We did however get to celebrate our anniversary on Saturday when Uncle Ed, Aunt Jamie, and Molly came over to watch the kids.  We went to a matinee show to see Bridesmaids (a really funny movie!) and then we had a delicious dinner at the Village Tavern.  It was prom night for some local schools so it was fun to see all the kids dressed up.  We told Ed and Jamie we’d be back early enough to put the kids to sleep so they could keep them up (last time they babysat the kids Lindy threw up all over the place).  Last night I said, just put their pj’s on and we’ll put them down when we get home.  We walked in at 8pm and Jamie was holding Lindy in a suspicious way – a way that I knew something had happened.  They said they went up to put on pj’s and she started crying some and then gagged a little.  They knew what was coming so they got her to a blanket and she at least threw up on the blanket.  I took her once we got here and was holding her and she threw up a couple more times.  She was really sweaty and sticky so I took her shirt off and she laid on me and then fell asleep in about 5 minutes.  What are we going to do with this child?  No one is ever going to want to babysit for us because of the amazing vomiting child. 

In Lindy’s defense (although I’m sure she made herself sick) she did spike a fever and I’m pretty sure she now has Fifth Disease.  She went right to sleep last night but woke up a couple hours later coughing and almost threw up again.  I ended up in the guest room with her again so Drew could sleep since you know, he works on Sundays.  Drew and Will went to church this morning and I stayed home with Lindy.  She has had a fever all day long.  She has done a lot of watching TV and laying around.  She has sat in my lap for a couple hours.  Just sitting there.  So un-Lindy like to sit still and do nothing.  She is definitely sick!

Although the kids haven’t felt great, it is seriously cute when you ask them how they feel.  All week Will has said, “Sick” or “So sick” in the most pitiful voice when you ask him.  I keep asking him if he feels better and he says “Not yet.”  Although today he finally told me he felt better.  Today Lindy has told me that she feels “so very sick.”  So pitiful and yet so stinking cute! 

I thought for sure once we hit April and May we’d all be healthy, but apparently not.  Hopefully this is the last thing we’ll deal with for awhile.  Keeping fingers crossed. 

Besides the kids being sick, my camera is sick too.  Yet again, I sent it off to get fixed.  Here are the only pictures I took this week.

 

The beginning of the sickness.Somehow she weasled her way under the blanket and kicked Will out!Now, sharing the blanket so everyone is happy.Lindy woke up Thursday morning with a big red spot on her chin.  We might know how it happened but we’re really not sure!Silly girl heading to swim lessons.A scary thug going to swim lessons.Red-cheeked Will.And look who is sick now.”I’m very sick”Will heading to church with Drew.A rare sight to see Lindy just laying around.  And just for fun, wedding pictures.  It’s been 9 years of wedded bliss!