Attack of the Forty Foot Virus!

This has been the year! Both Mad Dog, Lex and I have found ourselves in the capable hands of the folks at St. Vincent's Hospital  . Not that I don't love the nurses in the emergency room, but I don't need to see them anytime soon. 


This morning Mad Dog woke with extreme back pain and he was pretty sure it was a kidney stone. For anyone who hasn't had one, from my understanding it hurts like hell. Because of this pebble Mad Dog made his way to St. V's at 5 AM this morning on his own, leaving me with the Monkeys to get to school. He spent the day in emergency room 19 (the one I spent December 19th in) with the fine emergency room nurses of St. V's (all of which I love) and was released this afternoon with the stone still waiting to pass and handful of prescriptions to fill. 


He's doing much better now. Still waiting and watching his meds, making sure to take the next dose before the last one wears off.  Right now he is trying with all his might to make a chart/schedule of what/when he takes stuff. If only Loki didn't want to be his nurse. She is crawling all over him. 


On a separate note regarding the Health Care Industry, I was talking with my Daycare Provider today about the H1N1 vaccination. Yes, Mad Dog and I are getting Lex and Loki vaccinated. I have heard the argument that the FDA rushed the vaccination through and there are concerns about the use of it, but lets think about this logically. This is not a new radical type of vaccination, it is based off previous vaccinations. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but in the case of Mad Dog and I don't see a reason why Lex and Loki shouldn't have the shots. Also, with both of us working where we do, Mad Dog with the public and me in a corporation that has people coming and going from places all over the US/the World, we can't guarantee the environment the kids will be in.  Also, I can't count on the fact that the other kids attending Day Care will be getting them either. Lex and Loki are usually healthy kids, and with the cases of H1N1 in healthy children is on the rise, I don't want to worry. If you want to see what the virus does/spreads check out NPR's Flu Attack! Lastly - if Mad Dog (one of the Tin Foil Hat Brigade) thinks its okay, with all his research, I feel okay about it. 

People can send out all the information on the virus, the proper way to wash your hands and how to cough into your arm, but if people don't take personal responsibility for their health and themselves it doesn't matter what they share with this friends, families and coworkers. I have have finally caught the cold/cough that the kids and Mad Dog have finished with. I'm 2 weeks behind them. I think part of my luck in fighting off the sickness in our house is my new diet and focus on health. 


Or maybe I'm full of it and it's all an amazing marketing scheme by the health industry to sell more anti-bacterial gel, vitamins, cold meds and tissues. Oh, shoot did I clean the keyboard with Lysol . 

Snot! It Happens!

Regardless of the dates on the calendar or what anyone says we are in WINTER! People are fighting to hold off putting on their heat, putting on sweaters or hiding under blankets. Putting the plastic up on the windows and cooking heavy fall soups on the stove. This past Friday we had a dusting and we (personally) are currently up to our eyes in SNOT! 


Lex, Loki and Mad Dog are all fighting colds. I have somehow managed to avoid it so far, doesn't mean it not going to happen, but I can always hope. I think Loki has it the worst. Though Mad Dog didn't have a good day last Tuesday, he is getting better. Though they all don't feel good, they are all good humored about it. All three of them have received their Flu Shots, with Loki going for her second shot in a few days (fingers crossed she'll be well enough to get it). I on the other hand am still waiting on my Flu Shot, which they are doing at work in early November. We're hoping that this season will be a healthy one. The kids are only the waiting list for he H1N1 vaccinations.  

In regards to the snot-factor that has arisen in our house. Everyones nose is a faucet! The think I hate most of all is, that the sleeves of my shirts are always rolled, because they have been receptacle for said snot. Don't say YUCK, because you know you do it too as parents. Kid has snot running from both nostrils, dancing on the edge of their lips and you have nothing to wipe it with but the cuff of your shirt. You do what you have to do. Then you roll the cuff over and go on your way, until the next snot explosion. The cycle goes on and on, until you find that your sleeve is rock sold with the natural epoxy that our bodies produce in our nasal cavity.  


I would like to say I'm one of those parents that uses the antibacterial gel, but I'm not. We make sure that the kids wash their hands, and I have tried to limit the kisses at bedtime, but the truth is part of the reason Lex and Loki have not been overly sick in their short lifetimes, is because we expose them to the world.

I know far too many parents that practically keep their children in a bubble, and then get surprised when their children catch something. Their bodies don't know who to fight the germs, because they haven't had the exposer to the germs. Then their are those parents that think every little degree in temperature is a reason to run to the emergency room. I admit we have been at the emergency room with Lex and a fever, but his fever was 104.9. We know are children, and we trust our judgement when it comes to their treatment. There are reasons why the Health Industry costs are sky rocketing, and I'm sure every nervous parent who ends up at the emergency room with a sick child that could have been cared for at home isn't helping things either. Also, an overreaction to the simplest things also breeds it behavior in the child. 


Gigi is the perfect example of this. When she visits with us, we find that her symptoms are not what we are told they have been and the sickness that has prompted multiple visits to the doctor or emergency room are nonexistent here. We thing more often than not she is told her symptom and she plays them up, or thinks she has them. That doesn't happen here. Is it because we don't play to them, or acknowledge the over dramatics and because of this her body (or mind) doesn't react the same way?

With this winter I'm sure we'll be more cautious about the kids and their sniffles, but I doubt we'll change the way we handle things.