Disaster Strikes!

Mid-morning on Wednesday, William began complaining that he was cold.  Moments later, he asked to wear his coat.  IN THE HOUSE.

Then he laid down on the kitchen floor.  "Just to rest for a minute."

Uh oh.

I felt his head.  Yep.  Fever.

After (silently) cursing, I settled him into his bed and began pacing.  Would this ruin Christmas?  Nah, I reasoned we still had a good 36 hours before the festivities began.

But the fever didn't end.  In fact, by Thursday morning his temperature reached 104.6 and he was complaining of a sore throat. "Hurrah!" I thought, because a sore throat and fever were classic signs of strep throat.  And strep throat is a bacterial infection.  And bacterial infections can be fought with antibiotics!

So I called the pediatrician.  Turns out, the office was preparing to close FOR THE WEEKEND (What the heck?).  The nurse asked if I could be there in 10 minutes.  I was wearing my pajamas.  William was wearing nothing but his underwear (in an attempt to cool his body). And yet I said YES!  I said OF COURSE I could be there in 10 minutes!

I dressed myself and William WHILE I was making empty promises to the nurse.  I hung up the phone and RAN (RAN!) to Susan's house and handed her my baby (still clad in her pajamas). 

And can I just stop right here and say that I do not know WHAT I would do with out Susan Wagner and her family.  Seriously.

When I arrived at the doctor, I realized William wasn't wearing any shoes (whoops!).  So, I had to CARRY him.  He weighs 50lbs.  My back may never recover.

They did a strep test on William, which involves swabbing his tonsils with a long q-tip.  This required me to LAY on William while the nurse PRIED his jaws open.  I swear to you a veterinarian trained to work on grizzly bears would have been a better option.  It was awful.

While we waited for the results of the test, the staff began to file out and turn off various lights in the office.  They made it perfectly clear that WE were holding them up for their long weekend vacation.  I felt appropriately guilty.

The nurse returned and said the strep test was negative.  She suggested we call the triage nurse TOMORROW to see about getting a flu test.  I suggested we do the dang test TODAY. 

Man oh man that nurse was peeved.

So we did the grizzly-bear-holding-down-thingy with William again.  This time swabbing the lower portion of his brain via his nostrils.  Afterward, it took him a full five minutes  to stop screaming and rubbing his nose.  He was SO very offended by all this.

And guess what?  MY KID TESTED POSITIVE FOR THE FREAKIN' FLU! 

The flu.  The day before Christmas Eve. 

My mood turned as black as coal.  I called my family and canceled our plans to have lunch at my  house on Friday.  Then I called my sister-in-law and explained that we had exposed her entire family to the flu.  MERRY CHRISTMAS!

But guess what?  The doctor wrote all of us prescriptions for Tamiflu, and $171 later, we were all dosed up on the drugs.  And a few hours after that?  William's fever broke!

Today, he's completely back to normal.  Which means?  All our plans are back on!

Is that not a the most miracle-y Christmas miracle? 

God bless us every one!