Catching Up

Where to start? I'm not even sure I remember where the beginning would be. The Tuesday before Halloween, we got a babysitter and went to the viewing of our sister-in-law Gayle's dad. It wasn't much of a 'date' but it was still nice to be together without the kiddos, and we send our deepest sympathies to her and her family. The following day I had class, and then Thursday we went to a MOPS play date at my friend Renee's house. Caleb was a crab apple (a complete understatement) and Joshua was an angel. So, I didn't get to visit all that much, but the girls in our group seem nice. Friday night was Trick-or-Treat, which I already posted about and then Saturday was the Calvary Fall Fest. That evening, my sister Becky & her husband Tim came to our house to eat their dinner since they were supposed to pick up Dad at the Lancaster Airport, but they were running late so Shawn & Joshua left to go get him. Joshua was already in his jammies at that point, but he was excited to go to the little airport and was thrilled to see Grandpa. When they got back, Joshua read them books and Caleb showed them that he knows all his body parts and animal sounds and the boys enjoyed their audience. :) Soon, it was time for bed.

That was the weekend of Halloween, as I mentioned. Joshua started getting a little runny nose and cough. On Sunday, November 1, I visited my friend Julie's church since they were meeting at Lancaster Bible College, which is right up the street (in fact, I walked home!). We were going to go as a family, but I didn't want anyone to catch Joshua's cold. I highly enjoyed the service and wished my boys could have come, too. But, I'm so glad they didn't! We also passed on going to life group that afternoon, and I was thankful that our friends offered to host when we were having company in town. By evening, Joshua couldn't breathe. Literally. I was holding him in our office chair, singing a worship song and pleading to God. to rescue him. We gave him a breathing treatment, which helped, but he slept with me that night and Daddy slept in his bed. I was really worried about his breathing and we debated on going to the emergency room, but the breathing treatments were seeming to help. And we continued to pray. A lot.First thing in the morning on Monday, I called the pediatrician. Thankfully, they got him right in. He even got to see Dr. Tifft, one of my favorites.  Now, I almost didn't call because by Monday he seemed chipper and must less lethargic. He was even giggling. But, I knew that I'd kick myself if I waited and then he had another asthma attack after their office closed. The pediatrician told me that it was good I brought him. In fact, he said his lungs sounded 'tight' and terrible. He prescribed two types of steroids (one oral that Joshua HATED and made him miserable and angry) and another that he inhaled. He also told me to give him his rescue breathing treatments every four hours and call if he sounded worse or if his fever got worse or a new fever started. He then told me that I'm not paranoid and I need to call anytime day or night when there's a problem. That's what they are there for. It made me feel better. And I know that if Joshua ever sounds like that again, it's time to get to the emergency room. Thankfully, God saved us that time. That night as I was praying with Joshua (our normal bedtime prayers), I asked him what he was thankful for. Normally, he tells me the names of his favorite trains or someone special he saw that day. This time, he gasped out "life." Now, I know that answer is faaar beyond the capability of a 3-year-old boy, but it made me realize how precious his life really was and just how amazing God is for saving him once again. The medicine worked and with some breathing treatments and a week and a half off school, he seems to be doing much better.

The pediatrician also told me that they are no longer testing for the swine flu and simply assume every child who comes in with these symptoms has it. Joshua is considered extremely high risk, so the next set of H1N1 vaccines that come in, he should be receiving one (hopefully). Caleb got one while we were there. My little guy also had a runny nose and cough, but his wasn't life threatening like Joshua's. Who knows if it was really H1N1 that he had or just a cold? The thing that makes me think it was probably swine flu was how quickly his body reacted to it in bringing on his asthma. On the other hand, there were kids with colds at our playdate and it could have been just that. But... it doesn't really matter. You can get it anywhere, and what matters is that none of our kids died from it (and we're praying that they don't!). There was one child who died in the Susquehanna Valley, according to the kids, from pneumonia, but the pediatrician told us to look for a new onset of fever which would signal a secondary infection or pneumonia. We praise God for protecting our family! I never got sick at all, but Shawn got the persistent cough, fever, etc.

 Thankfully Shawn was able to stay home or come home to watch the boys while I went to school, so we kept our spreading of it to a minimum (hopefully). I also cleaned every surface in our house with bleach including door knobs, railings, kitchen pulls, appliance handles, phones, remote controls and everywhere I could think of that normally gets touched (including the lower walls by the kids). I'm hoping that our house is safe to enter once again! Please pray for our family that we don't get any more sickness this year, and thank God for His protection.