Sunday, August 19, 2012

More Summer Sickness & STREP

The night of July 26, Ryan started screaming throughout the night. He's slept well for awhile so I thought this was strange and ran to his room. I wasn't ready for the sight I was about to see. He was COVERED in vomit, as was his entire bed and room. It was literally all over his face and PJs like he had been rolling around in it. I screamed for Shawn to come help me, who got right up as well and agreed when he saw the situation that it was a 2-person job. I took Ryan straight to the bath tub to undress him and take off his diaper there. You could barely see him there was so much junk all over him. Shawn started working on the crib. Not only did we have to take off the sheets, but we had to clean the mattress underneath (even with our mattress protector!), etc. He started the laundry as I bathed our poor little buddy. Ryan stayed up a majority of that night. Poor guy! Poor mama as I was exhausted. (Shawn went back to bed, of course, since he needed to work the next day).

The following day we were supposed to bounce with our friends, but I emailed overnight and told her that my little buddy was sick. I'm glad I did because the following afternoon, Caleb told me that his throat was very sore. Sore enough to go to the doctor's office, I asked? He said no. But, in hearing how he sounded, I called and scheduled the appointment. Caleb was diagnosed immediately with strep throat. I asked them to swab the baby then, and we had to wait awhile until Dr. Beiler (who I found out was a married Dr. Hanna who we really liked!) could come back to swab a sick Ryan. They assumed that the baby's was viral because it's rare for kids under a year to get Strep, and he had just turned a year. The short test came back negative, so we only picked up antibiotics for Caleb.

On Sunday, we didn't go to church because Ryan still didn't seem like himself. We debated and debated and finally agreed that it wasn't worth the risk. Praise the Lord, too, because we got a call from Dr. Sanchez that afternoon that Ryan's long test came back positive for strep throat as well. Then I remembered that the week before Joshua had said his throat was a little sore - nothing big, but he only ate yogurt the one day. The next day he seemed fine, so I hadn't thought more about it. I had assumed he was just a little tired from all our running. So, I scheduled him an appointment first thing Monday morning and sure enough, his short test came up positive for strep as well.

So, I scheduled an appointment for myself to get tested, and my doctor simply said that if all three boys had strep throat there was no sense in doing the swab. All family members should IMMEDIATELY start taking antibiotics to rid the chance of passing it around. At my request, he gave me a Z-pack that I started right away. Shawn was already on antibiotics for a cyst on his back that was infected and causing him major pain. So, we were all on medication, and I disinfected all our toothbrushes and spent the next couple days scrubbing and cleaning the entire house with bleach. No more sickness!!! But, I heard a TON of children had strep this summer, so we could have picked it up anywhere. Poor Ryan had the worst case of it, but I was so thankful when my little buddies were feeling better.

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