The Veldmans: Sick & Cold

The start of 2015 has been a bit rough for us. We started out with a trip to the pediatrician's office on new years eve with G-man. He had a horrible cough and fever that came on suddenly over night. I took him in because I was fearful that he had influenza. Well, if he did we wouldn't know because our clinic was out of swabs. Not a big deal since I later found out (after they swabbed Ava) that they are only 40% accurate anyway...giving many many false negatives. I've learned through work that we also have more expensive swabs that are more accurate...but not always used. Anyway, we left the pediatrician's office with a diagnosis of pneumonia, and a boat load of prescriptions, including the dreaded steroids that pump my son's body full of energy so he doesn't take naps. I knew that it was serious when he refused to eat on new years day. I thankfully have the best neighbors, and one of them came to watch the kids while I ran to Target to get some pedialyte. I called in sick child on Friday and stayed home with the little man since he still had fevers. By Saturday, he was good to go.

So, back to new years. Nate and I attempted to go to a party after the kids were down. Unfortunately Grant woke up 15 minutes after we arrived at the party. I just hung out with our sitter until Nate got home for me to take her home. I just couldn't bear leaving him again since he was sick with such high fevers. Nate was in bed early (for his super early flight to FL) and I went back to the party to bring in the new year with the neighbors.

New Years day Nate was up way before the sun to catch his 6 am flight to the Citrus Bowl game in FL. He, Boppa, Uncle Wes, & Aunt Janna took a one day trip to FL to cheer on the gophers. Unfortunately, the gophers couldn't pull off a win, but they had fun anyway. Nate got home around midnight that night.

I unfortunately had to work my 12 hr night shift Saturday. I got off on Sunday morning at 7:30, stopped at home and picked up Ava, and took her to Urgent Care with a fever and cough. They swabbed her for influenza, which came back negative (as she was throwing up in the garbage can). She was super pumped when the Dr. brought her in a pedialyte freezy. She's still talking about that "special Mr. Freezy". She also got a diagnosis of pneumonia and some antibiotics. It was noon by the time I got home, so had to call in ill child once again. I'm glad I did, as her fever got up to 105.6 that evening. After stripping her down, drugging her, and giving her a luke warm bath, we got control of her fever. She has now been fever free since Monday night, but continues to have this horrible cough. I'm hoping it will be gone soon. It's such a nasty winter for illness everywhere.

It's been a high of 0 degrees here for many days this week. It's absolutely dreadful. Even though the kids were feeling better, we were still trapped inside due to the cold temps and dangerous windchills. Can't wait for the warm-up next week...28 degrees is feeling tropical. :)

We hope that you all had a wonderful new years, and that 2015 has started off happy and healthy for you and your families.