The Flu!

It looks like the sickness has finally hit our house. The sickness around our schools here has been pretty bad. The entire school system shut down last Friday, and some of the other schools in the system had already been out Wednesday & Thursday for sickness. Katelyn had a cold last week, but that was it. She didn't even come close to having a fever. Everytime I would take her temperature it would be like 97.9 or 98.1. She just had a snotty nose, a little cough, and a sore throat. We treated her symptoms and she was fine by the week-end. However, by Monday evening she was coughing again and complaining of a sore throat. We already had an appointment scheduled with the allergist on Tuesday morning as a follow-up to figure out what's causing all the bumps on her face. So while we were there, they did a strep test. It was negative. Since she wasn't running a fever, they thought maybe she was just starting to develop a secondary infection from her cold the previous week - like maybe a sinus infection or respiratory infection. They gave us a prescription for antibiotics and we were on our way. Katelyn complained about not feeling well, so I did let her stay home from school. Usually when I explain that if you stay home from school you have to stay in bed, can't play, etc. she decides she feels well enough to go. Not this time. She actually got in bed and took a nap. By Wednesday morning, her temp was up to almost 103! I immediately took her to the walk-in clinic because I was thinking she had the flu (it's going around our school and church). Sure enough, she has the flu! She has started on Tamiflu since it seems like we caught it early. I called the girls' allergist when I got home and asked their philosophy on Tamiflu for the rest of the family. They usually put everyone in the house on Tamiflu when one of the family members is diagnosed with the flu, so they called in prescriptions for the rest of us. I was mainly concerned about Rachel, but since they were willing to do it for me & Robert also, we took it. It's expensive, but hopefully it'll be worth it if it keep us from getting sick.

Katelyn will miss the rest of the week of school, so she was only able to go on Monday. She seems to be feeling a little better today, and seems to be a little more "chipper." She has finished all of her school work from Tuesday & Wednesday, and has also been working on Study Island (an online program used by the school for various assignments in math & reading) and her Technology Fair project. She still has a fever, but it wasn't as high this morning.