|
|
I have come to the conclusion that germs travel, procreate and attack at a rate akin to the concorde breaking the sound barrier… especially in a household with a baby and a toddler! What used to take a day or two to leave our household pre-kids now takes on average two weeks… minimum. Take the common cold for example. We all know the symptoms: sore throat for a day or two, followed by a blocked or runny nose, headache, and a couple of days of feeling a bit off colour. Treatment? Two or three days in bed and a good dose of Corenza C. Tell that to the tired mom with two kids! Bedrest?? What's that?
It all started two weeks ago when one of the kids at Megan's school had what can only be described as nuclear waste dripping from nose to chin. Now I don't mind if kids go to school with a bit of a runny nose or a lingering cough – heck I send Megan to school like that, but to me bright luminous green gunk spells disaster (i.e. Keep the kid at home!). So anyway Meg generally has a pretty good immune system and fights things off quite well, but unfortunately the gods weren't smiling on me this time. She soon came down with a pretty nasty cold, which in turn turned into a chest infection. It took her a good ten or so days to completely clear it, and she still has that nasty persistent cough. The end of my problems, you think? Guess again.
No sooner had Megan fought it off than Caty started! I took her to the doctor one Friday morning, and he said yes, her throat is a little bit red, but nothing a bit of Panado won't sort out. By Saturday she had a high fever and a very blocked nose, accompanied by two hundred decibel screaming, so back to the doctor again. Needless to say he was shocked at how much she had deteriorated in 24 hours. So I left his office armed with a miserable baby and a magic script: Painkillers, an antibiotic and nose-drops.
Hands up who has ever tried to administer an antibiotic to a baby. Now hand's up who has actually ever succeeded… Yes, just as I thought. None of you. I would like all those clever high and mighty pharmaceutical companies out there to come and witness the event that is… ‘medicating a baby'. They make the antibiotic so thick and vile that it feels like you are forcing liquid chalk down your poor baby's throat. My (childless) friend was horrified to witness it one day… Me sitting literally on top of Caty to hold her down, arms pinned to her sides, towel over her chest and tucked under her ears (for spillage control), and me squirting the revolting (supposedly banana flavoured – as if that helps) muck into her very unaccommodating mouth, blowing into her face with every drop to make her swallow. Of course with all the screaming most of it got coughed and spluttered back in my face… and then I had to do round two… the Stopayne. Same process, except now I had purple projectiles running down my cheeks. Then for the nose-drops. Now she has gotten wise to this and when she sees the little dropper coming she starts shaking her head vigorously making any attempt at getting it near her nose near impossible. So clamp her face between my knees, nose drops in, more screaming… thankfully Caty is my second child and I'm immune to all the trauma, otherwise by now I would be completely finished and in need of some medication myself!
Anyway after five days of antibiotics and a course of (somewhat traumatic) physio administered by a doctor who hardly looked like he had even left school (boy did he make me feel old), Caty is finally out of the woods. But being at home with two sick kids over the course of two weeks… it was inevitable… yes, you guessed it… I spent the weekend in bed. And to make matters worse, my usually very involved husband is in the middle of a very stressful year-end and worked most of the weekend! All I can say is thank goodness for Granny and Papa, who swooped into my house and whisked my two kids off for the day, so that I could recover in peace. So now you see, a whole two weeks of bugs and viruses in our house, but we are finally on the road to recovery… until my husband gets it that is… Let's hold thumbs… and hope for the best, because I don't fancy pinning him to the bed… as much as he might enjoy it… * hehe * So I'm off to the chemist to arm my entire family with a good dose of immune boosters, so here's to a sick-free rest of the year!
© Sally Hetherington .
