Our Week

Yup, this week has been a doozy. Not necessarily in a good way. It started out with me getting rather ill on Hallowe'en. So the entire family had to skip church on Sunday morning because I just wasn't up to tending to two little ones with a high fever, and just general sickness. Not to mention I was supposed to be in the nursery, caring for other people's children. I think not! Ugh...

So on Sunday afternoon I knew I had to get to the bottom of it, so off to the Medicentre I went. Now, let me just point out, I truly do hate Medicentres, but honestly, they really are the "easiest" option. Because really, where else do you find a dcotor on Sunday afternoon? And just to clarify, a Medicentre is a big drop-in clinic. A big, germ-filled, overpopulated, money-making, sub-standard, drop-in clinic.

I was there for nearly 2 hours (even though I was told it was a maximum 1 hour wait). I did what I could to avoid actually waiting in the waiting room. So I shopped at the little store connected to the Medicentre. Bought nothing of course, but I now know that store like the back of my hand! And the bonus? I didn't breathe in anyone else's additional gross sickness!

So it turns out I have sinusitis. Which I think explains the high fever, chills, sweats. Likely from the infection. The part that I found really weird was that initially I had no symptoms other than the fever. It was only after that the fever went that I started getting a bit of a sore throat and sore sinuses. Oh well, I got to the bottom of it. I still have a bit of a croaky throat in the morning, and I still don't feel like I can completely clear out my sinuses, but I'm feeling better. And I'm happy to not have a fever any day!

Early in the weekend, Gabe had also shown some signs of a fever, but we chalked it up to teething, and administered the necessary meds and thought nothing of it. But by Tuesday night, he had quite a high fever, he was panting, and he wasn't responding to Tylenol or Motrin anymore. So we knew something was up. And according to the H1N1 symptoms, he had at least two of them. So I packed him up and took him to a H1N1 triage centre (Its in the Duggan health clinic for all you Edmontonians). It was open until midnight. We got there at nearly 11:00pm, and we walked right in. Only one other person there. We were masked up and immediately assessed (Although seriously, who actually thinks a 11 month old is going to keep a mask on his face? Gabe had it ripped off in seconds!). The nurse said his respiratory rate was off the charts, and his fever was concerning, so we were sent for a 2nd assessment, this time with a doctor. He looked him over and guess what he found? Tonsillitis!!!

It all made sense once he said that! The recurring fever. The progressively worsening recurring fever. So I figure it got so bad (the infection), his body was no longer responding to medications. Very scary, and it made me feel sick, knowing just how sick he was. We went to a 24 hour Shoppers Drug Mart (sometimes it really does pay to live in a big city), and got his prescription filled immediately. The thing I didn't realize is that it would take 48 hours for the antibiotics to start doing anything.

So lets just say, the past 3 nights have been basically awful around here. I've been on the phone with my Mom, every night. She really is the baby whisperer! Gabe was experiencing all of the same symptoms as before (high fever, panting), but now we couldn't do anything about it, other than my Mom's suggestions (baths, steamy room, take his clothes off, etc). It was only last night that I would say things started showing any improvement, or maybe, just maybe, I had finally figured out all of the tricks. So last night it at midnight was the 48 hour mark, and I am hoping, praying....needing, things to improve.

I haven't been this sleep deprived in months, not to mention I'm trying to recover from my own illness. So I'm basically wiped, and this week has just been about survival. None of us have left the house (other than Rob). So I figure by today we are all starting to get a bit of cabin fever, but I'm still concerned that we are contagious, so we will continue to lay low. The part I find incredible is that Abbi is fine (the apparent "immuno-compromised" child) and Rob has stayed healthy thus far. With all this H1N1-ness flying around its hard to not want to hide out for the entire winter!

Another "exciting" thing of our week, is due to me taking antibiotics, I'm guessing the taste of my milk has changed. So as such, Gabe wants nothing to do with it. I'm on day 3 of not being a nursing Mother any longer. I'm fairly OK with this concept. That means only one month of having to do formula (after 12 months old, they can drink cow's milk). I do like the closeness of nursing, but I also find the same cuddle time can be found with a bottle. So its the end of an era around here. I remember the disdain Abbi had for my breasts after she stopped nursing as well. As if I'm the most repulsive thing ever. Gabe's now giving me a similar look. Its as if they are saying, "Put your shirt back on already!!!" Its OK, I got over it the first time, and I'll get over it again. No boob complex here!

Oh right, another big milestone is that it looks like Abbi is finally potty trained. Now I don't guarantee anything as we haven't basically left the house in 2 weeks, but around home, Abbi is rocking the panties all day. We are still needing to prompt her to go, but at least now she just goes. Before there was always a fight, then 1.5 hours of her sitting there twiddling her thumbs, only to find she doesn't go pee, until she stood up and did it all over the floor. So this is pretty monumental stuff. This is the end of week three, so its been some work. At the beginning of it all, Abbi said, "I don't want to be a big girl. I don't like panties." Yesterday morning Abbi said, "I like wearing panties." That's a pretty big success I'd say! So perhaps tonight she and I will go out and pick her out some special panties for her successes!

We also decided it was time to get new tires on Rob's work car (A shotty little Geo Metro that Rob has lovingly coined "The Blue Madness"). Rob went out to check the tread the other day and poked his finger on the metal that is supposed to be on the inside of the rubber! Um, yikes! So we knew it was time. We got it into Canadian Tire, and Rob made sure to get them to call if it needed any additional work (he also wanted the front-end aligned). Well, of course they called, and if we wanted the front-end aligned there was a lot of things that needed to take place first. Which would cause our current $300 bill to jump to $1100. For a $500 car. I think not! So for now, we will enjoy the new tire-ness and figure out what to do about the alignment later.

So there you have it, all and all, its been a interesting week around the Nepper household. We've laughed, we've cried (At least I know I've cried. Seriously, I'm sure I'm going crazy!), we've had fevers, we've peed on the potty, and we have new tires on our car. Can life get any better? Or interesting for that matter?