January...a/k/a the flu month

Oh man, I am so thankful for January!  I love that a long full 31 day month comes after the fast pace of the holidays.  There is Christmas Eve, Christmas, big family Christmas, a birthday, New Years Eve then New Years Day.  And as good as ours was, I was very glad that January, which could have a tendency to go very quickly with a new year underway, school starting back up after a break, kids' activities going on the calendar, two birthdays being celebrated in our family, etcetera, etcetera, was long and slow.  A very good possibility of why our month was long and slow could have been because 50% of us got the flu.  Sweet SE started with it, then it went to Fin and lastly Annabell. 

This was our first in tackling multiple sicknesses in our family.  For the most part, we are a pretty healthy family with ear infections being the most with which we've had to deal.  Ear infections are not contagious.  Ear infections don't threaten an 18 month old or a 3 month old.  The flu does.  So I donned a bandana that I wore any time I interacted with SE and Fin the first couple of days and a suit of Lysol, which I was constantly spraying on me, in the air, on anything they touched.  Sweet Elin went into isolated quarantine, which she absolutely hated because she's the fourth and being the fourth she's around someone at all times.  And the stream of fluids, medicine, and "whatever you want because you are sick and I need you to stay in the hatch so no one else gets infected" began.  SE, of course, was a champ...the rule follower, enough of a people pleaser, drink as much as you can so you will get better, was only down one day with symptoms, but stayed in the hatch two just to make sure.  Annabell was pretty much the same way.  Finley, on the other hand, was the wild card. 

She followed SE's pattern of two days of symptoms then fever subsided so I let her out after three days in the hatch.  Day 4 she seemed great!  Then, on day 5, after a morning spent playing with Annabell and breathing in and on Elin's face, I realized Fin's fever had gone back up.  Ahhh!  So back into isolation went Fin and two days later, Annabell was diagnosed.  Now, what I will say about poor Fin is that we didn't give her TamiFlu.  I honestly thought she would shake the flu pretty quickly since she was barely having any symptoms.  We conducted our own little experiment if you will, and I will break the budget if in the future we have to deal with the flu again.  Here's our conclusion:  SE and Annabell both got TamiFlu and had one day of "high" fever, the highest SE's went was maybe 102.7 and AB's was maybe 102.  They had one of day of mild fever with both hovering around 100/101.  Then by day 3 they were both fever free without the aid of Tylenol or Ibuprofen.  Sweet Fin had 2 days of high fever, one of mild, then no fever, then high fever again, then mild, then finally on day 7 cleared of the flu!  And what about this one you ask...

I'm happy to report that she was spared of the flu although her pediatrician said if she got it, she too could have TamiFlu.  But praise the Lord, we didn't have to make that call!