The FLU

The flu has hit fast and furious this year. It almost feels like the last flu season never really ended but just took a short leave of absence before returning to make so many people sick again. Jack was the first victim in our home.

He woke up Thursday morning not quite himself and he was shaking. What had been a slight cough seemed worse. His nasal drainage was again green. He would not eat and then this is when we knew that he had to be sick....

He agreed to lie down AND he actually agreed to put covers on! This was a picture of him laying in the middle of the living room. Dave took his temperature and BINGO! Time to call the doctor!!! Tamiflu was called in and we were told to start it ASAP. Fortunately, for us, it did not take all that long before Jack was ready to give Irish* a spin. (*We did not give McCahill's Irish a seperate name like Irish two or McCahill's Irish. Irish is simply Irish although we have popped Irish in plain sight so we all know this is a new Irish.)

No one recovers from the flu quite that quickly! Jack is such a trooper and he plays hard. His Aunt Mary has always said that she has never seen anyone work quite so hard and so seriously at playing. :) He had spurts of energy which would be followed by much lying around. His fevers subsided by sometime Saturday and it looked like he was going to recover in time for school on Monday. Unfortunately, on Sunday evening, as my sweet cherub was falling asleep for one of his short little not quite over the flu naps I saw green goo in his left eye. David and I had actually noticed Saturday night that the left eye was a bit red and appeared swollen but this is the eye that remains partially open all the time and we just thought it might have gotten overly dry. I made sure to put extra Lacrilube in his eye that night. Sunday I did notice that the eye seemed to tear up a lot but again that is a sign of being overly dry and I thought we needed to keep it better moisturized. Only when I saw the green goo did the tumblers click in place and my brain finally said, "Oh no! Pink eye!" I cried. Really. And I prayed a very honest prayer that went something like this--"pink eye! Now he has pink eye too?!!? This isn't right. Make him well. Just make him well. Enough! He's had enough! Just make him well. Please please make him well!" Right about there I realized that I was being more than over the top dramatic about Jack getting pink eye and my prayer from that point went more like this--"This isn't really a big deal and I don't know why I'm so upset about this. I've probably watched too much tv today. But I really don't know why he has to have pink eye too. Please don't let him get really really sick from all of this. I just worry about him. You gave him to me to love and I do." I massaged his eye to get all noticeable goo out and really it looked much better after I got quite a bit of green goo out. It was still obviously tender as evidenced by Jack wincing every time I touched anywhere near the eye. David came home and we looked at it together and Jack had a bit more drainage though not quite so green. We decided to keep him home on Monday and take him to the doctor. Diagnosis:Clogged tear duct. Non-infectious! Treatment: Warm compresses to the eye and massage the tear duct to get out any blockage. Prognosis: He looks great and he can go back to school. Actually, our family doctor had a very big grin on his face as Jack interrupted our conversation trying to tell me to sit down in the chair so we could play. Dr. Aizenman was obviously happy to see Jack's development.

Since Jack was out of school, we took some time to play. Well, first Jack's old car needed some work

Gotta keep those tires rotated and balanced!

He decided to take her for a spin and see how she was running.

Geez! Still pullin to the left a bit.

Look how big he's gotten compared to this.

Next we headed to a local park.

Can you say "Wheeeeee!"? Jack can!

The next few pictures were a real treat for me. It's amazing how much Jack has continued to develop. There was a time when, for safety's sake, I could not have taken these pictures because I needed to be right next to Jack to make sure he did not step off a platform into the air and hit some climbing apparatus on the way down.

Did you notice how he held his hand out and reached out to see where the next platform was exactly? Really, if I had not known it myself I never would have guessed that this was a child with any kind of depth perception or vision issue as he climbed around this particular slide. (Now, on other climbing equipment later in the day as he reached out to try to grab a rung that was not where he thought it was it was a bit more obvious. To be fare the other climbing thing that I am referring to was a chain ladder thingy. Yeah, I'm real descriptive.)

He decided to go up again only this time from a slightly different point of entry.

Jack had to take the playground car for a spin too.

But he started to get tired so we headed over to the swing for a break.

I wasn't able to catch all the playing in pictures. Just trust me. We had fun! Jack was good and tired tonight. I'm praying that we all rest well and are ready to return to school and work tomorrow. :)