Flu Update

That evening, after the last post below, I woke Jesse up at 10:30 to give him some more medication. He had two doses of the Tamiflu so far and I had kept up on the Tylenol/Motrin so I was expecting his fever to be better. Well, it wasn't. His fever had gone up to 105. And then I checked his skin again, and he definitely had hives. Silver dollar sized welts on his face, shoulders, arms, and bum.

I called the doc, worried that I need to take him to the ER, and she talked me down, told me to give him the Benadryl (which I hadn't yet because I had just got it at the store), and watch him. She was surprised that he was allergic to the Tamiflu because that is very rare. Well, I did what she said and the hives slowly went away and his fever came down again.

Thinking back on it, I should have just taken him to the ER. Things turned out OK, but because of how severe his reaction was to the medication and how high his fever was, taking him to the ER would have been the safest option. He's now doing just fine and has a lingering cough. No fever, and no hives.

The rest of us are now dealing with the flu and some are having a harder time of it than others. My flu is centered in my chest. Coughing feels like my chest is going to explode so I do my best to not cough. Taylor is pretty out of it, but the boys are holding up pretty well. They even wanted to ride their bikes today.

The doc prescribed Tamiflu to both Jeriah and Lukas, and after their first dose of it they also had a reaction to the medication. Not hives, but minor delirium, confusion, and agitation. Lukas would be asleep, and then his eyes would be open, and just staring. But he wasn't asleep. If I moved, he would focus on me and his eyes would follow me around. He wouldn't respond to me if I talked to him, and he just looked really confused. Then he would slowly come out of it and finally begin to respond to me.

Jeriah would wake up crying and whining, and then talk like he was still dreaming. But he would respond to us like he was awake. He's never done that before. He was just really out of it, and it was almost like he was hallucinating.

Both of their fevers were in the 101 range, so I couldn't blame it on a high fever. I didn't give them any more of the Tamiflu and they have been fine since.

The flu hasn't been as bad as I feared so far. I can still move around and sort of take care of things. If I do too much then I start coughing and that's not good. Taylor has to sleep a lot before he feels OK to get up. The boys still have small fevers and they have watched movies all day long for two days straight. I've got a little setup on my kitchen table with medications, cups, thermometer, tissues, and clorox wipes. Since we've all got it at the same time, no one has been all that hungry so I haven't felt the need to make any meals. I just hope it goes quickly and never comes back.