Dear Santa...

... all I want is a well family for Christmas.  Please and thank you?

Preston woke up on Monday morning with a fever.  It was controlled most of the day, and he wasn't acting like he was sick or anything.  Then, around 4pm, I checked his temperature 'cause it had been just over four hours since he last had a dose of Tylenol.  His temperature was right around 104degrees!  Whoa, mama!  Into the bath he went to get his temperature down quickly.  Calls were made to the pediatrician, who.. of course!... would not return my call until it was about closing time.  Michael was thankfully on his way home, and I registered us online to wait for CareNow.  I went into a bit of panic, because when Preston was 18 months old, he had a febrile seizure because of a high fever... and hadn't been up this high since then.  He said he felt fine, but his eyes were drowsy and red, had that sick look in them.  I couldn't figure out what was going on.  We got tired of waiting on CareNow to call, so went up there and waited.  They checked his temperature (103.5) and gave him Motrin to try to reduce the fever, but after an hour it was still 103.2.  The strep test and flu test came back negative, but the doctor was still sure it was strep based on the red throat and swollen lymph nodes in his throat.  So, he gave us a prescription to treat strep - some nasty, milky, foul liquid of sorts.  Preston didn't put up too much of a fight the first dose.  We spent the rest of the nite watching movies.  And since were were all mostly awake, we got to see the eclipse!

His fever was about 99 during the nite, and didn't get above that all day.  That morning I wrestled, argued, fought with Preston about taking the liquid medicine for nearly an hour.  It was awful.  Preston is usually very good about taking medicine with no trouble.  He takes several kinds of medicine dialy because of his asthma and allergies, so it's never really an issue.  But this stuff was so nasty, he downright refused, threw a giant fit and at one point when I got the medicine in his mouth, spit it out all over his bedding.  Which meant we had to go through it all again.  It was bad.  I finally got him to take it by mixing it with chocolate milk, and then he declared it "yummy!"  Sigh.  He promised that if I mixed it with something, he'd be a good boy and drink it right up later when he had to take it again.  Whew.  The rest of the day we watched movies, laid around, took it easy... but he still said he felt fine, nothing felt wrong.  Finally, in the middle of dinner he said his throat hurt when he swallowed.  We thought he was just trying to get out of eating his dinner, but after checking his throat and seeing lots of white spots all over, we realized he was finally showing strep symptoms.  About that time Michael checked his throat and saw some spots, and said his throat felt funny too.  Dang it!  He went ahead and called in to work.  Needless to say there was much more laying around and movie watching.  And when it came time for Preston to take his medicine again... another fight ensued, tears, screaming, a fit.

I have to admit that I am a terrible nursemaid.  I do not do well with sick people.  I don't know what to do, how to make it better, what to give or use, how to comfort... so I get angry at myself, then in turn... take it out on the patient.  I lose my patience easily, and just generally suck at care giving.  Poor Michael and Preston don't feel well, then have to deal with my attitude and impatience with them.  I stop, try to change my countenance, but fail every time.  I don't know why I can't be compassionate when my family needs me to be.  It's bad that I KNOW it, and can't fix it.  I try, I do.  But then turn around and get angry again, or just fail at being nice.  There was more refusal of medicine this morning, even though I mixed it with what he wanted me to... didn't matter, more screaming and crying, then finally taking it and it being fine.  Sigh.  WHHHYYYY didn't I insist on a shot while at the doctor so we didn't have to do this?!?!?  Grrrrr.

Anyway, I just pray that Preston and Michael heal quickly, and that Callen especially doesn't get it as well.  Maybe he already had it a bit, he did have that fever a few days ago and we've had no teeth pop out... maybe it wasn't teething?  And I pray I don't get it as well... I may be a terrible nurse to my family, but we need someone to be able to do stuff around here.  And mostly I pray that this ALL blows over by Christmas Eve, since I've invited my family to come to our place.  Yikes. 

And for now... more movies.  Currently playing: Disney's Christmas Carol (the one with the voice of Jim Carrey).