You got up and played today--play dough; painting; My Little Ponies. You ate soup and giggled and wanted to have a book read to you.
Why is all this remarkable and worthy of blogging? Because this has not been the pattern the last few days for your behavior. You, my dear, have had the flu. And a miserable case thereof.
It all started with an innocent trip to Austin to visit "The Cousins" and Great Grandmama and Papa. One after another, children fell ill. Nothing super major. A few very tired days with a fever, and then they were up and running again. Baby Q got it after about the fourth day there. And finally, Saturday morning, just as we were getting up to leave for the airport to go home, you caught it.
Of course, after perfect flights to Austin and from Austin to Houston, we got stuck in Houston. For six hours. Five of which you slept, and slept, and burned hot, and slept. Finally we got home, and this same pattern of sleep and burning and not eating or drinking much continued for several days. As we had seen the pattern play out already for several other children, we figured we'd let it run its course. But it wasn't following the same pattern.
In the meantime, Christmas Eve rolls around and Christmas Day. You'd rather nap than open presents. Such lethargy.
Finally, Boxing Day. You wake up cool and happy, ready to play. We encourage you to not overdo it, but we're excited to finally see some normalcy. Then you took a nap and woke up hotter and sicker than ever.
Enough was enough. You and I went out in the car to a walk-in clinic at CVS. 15 people in line ahead of us, at 15 minutes a visit, we were looking at over 3 hours of waiting. And you burned on. The lady next to me saw me looking up other walk-in clinics and told me she had just found Target's clinic had no wait. So we took off for the Target clinic. 30 minutes later we were finally being seen. Except they took your temperature and said, "sorry. She's running 105.5. We can't deal with that here. Go to the ER."
So after two hours, we wind up in the ER. Diagnosis: flu and an ear infection.
Two days later, you are, mostly, happier. Still coughing and recovering, but feverless, and happier. And that, my dear, is the best post-Christmas gift I could have from you.
