Wednesday, March 7, 2018

Samuel gets Influenza B

As I've already mentioned a couple times, Evie, then Ezra, and finally Samuel all that Influenza B in February. I didn't even know that's what Evie and Ezra had until Samuel got so sick with a fever of 103.8 and I took him in to the clinic. 



Look at those poor sick eyes! He'd never ever been this sick before and I had heard so many horror stories of "healthy" kids dying suddenly from this flu that I was very afraid, especially at night when his fever spiked. Oh, it was terrible.


I took him to the clinic on Tuesday, February 13, though it was the day before when he first fell ill. The day before that, Sunday, was when we had taken the kids out sledding at the ranch. Boy I kicked myself after that. Ezra had been sick and got worse due to sledding in the cold, and apparently Samuel couldn't handle it either because he got very sick on Monday. It was Tuesday morning at 5:30am that he woke up coughing like crazy with that insane temperature that I took him in. He was negative for Strep but positive for Influenza B. So I figured that's what Evie and then Ezra had but they did not get near as sick; just a little fever and a mild cough.

Samuel felt a bit better once we returned from the clinic and his ibuprofen had kicked in (I did not take the Tamiflu). But he still spent his days lying on the cough or in bed. His happy face here is deceiving. He was not happy.



I still had to do school with the other kids, but Samuel of course was excused. Noah and I lied on his bed reading a book together when Ezra bounced in to join us. 



And then he tried to take my phone from me. Ha! 



I was so tired after being up with Samuel since 5:30 and worn out from anxiety, even I took a two hour nap. Kitty joined me when I woke up.



 Later that afternoon Samuel lost another tooth! He always felt a little better when the sun was out.



His voice was a little croaky here but it got way worse with the cough.



That night we just laid around watching the Olympics. Ezra ended up needing some tickling and wrestling because he was feeling better.



Trying an oldie and goodie.



Samuel had to try too though he was not feeling well. 



Sometimes a four year old just needs stuffed into a book shelf. Ha ha.



No you can't come out boy!



So that night I had Samuel sleep in bed with me and Terry slept in Samuel's bed. I had to have him near me and make sure he was breathing! Every three hours my phone alarmed and I gave him either Ibuprofen or Tylenol. That kept his fever down better than Ibuprofen alone and we slept reasonably well in between meds. That morning his temp was lower but he was still snoozing until like 9:30am. 



I didn't want to move and wake him up since he clearly needed the sleep. Terry stays home later on Wednesdays since they're long days so I was thankful for that.



While we were in bed Sarah stopped by with a few little gifts for us. She's so darn sweet. I had sent out a plea for prayer the night before because I was just frantic with worry over him. None of my kids had ever been so very sick before. Even after all that sleep his eyes still looked so tired.



Samuel's cough kept getting worse which was alarming to me. Remembering that I had bought a nebulizer and had tons of albuterol left over from when Evie returned from our sabbatical trip sick, I gave him treatments whenever his cough got especially tight and scary sounding. Gah, the sound he made when he'd inhale was just terrifying! But thankfully after a full week, he was on the mend. The following week was the Box Maze and he was able to go to that and have a great time. He's officially all better now. Thank the Lord!

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