Half and Half

Half of our family is well...half is sick.

Since I last posted...well, on Tuesday this past week, Brad got sick, went to the doctor, had the test and was confirmed another swine flu patient. UGH! I cried. Really I did. All I could imagine was Brenna not getting better any time too soon, Brad going downhill fast, and me soon to follow suit. Who would take care of us? Brooke?

But so far, so good for me (knock on wood!!!). And Brooke is still A-OK too! (knock on wood again!) The dr prescribed Brad some Tamiflu and went ahead and called me some in as well to take as preventative. So, maybe that's helped me? Or maybe God just knows that mom's don't get to be sick. Either way, I'm praying and crossing all fingers that I can glide past all this not getting sick. It's hard! The consensus, by the now three different doctors we've all seen at some point, is that Brooke got it from school, but never showed any symptoms. And it was not for my lack of noticing anything! As soon as friends started popping up sick, I was checking her temp daily for no reason, eyeing any little throat clearing with extra caution, and questioning her every sniffle or eye wipe. She really had no symptoms. Strange isn't it? Anyways, so she got it with no symptoms (thank you Flintstones vitamins, right?) and passed it on to Brenna. And now, Brenna to Brad. So technically, if that theory is true, I'm the only family member to not have had it, but Brooke has her super immune system that it didnt' want to mess with! Haha! I don't know... It's all so wierd, strange and different for every single person from what I have learned.

So, now...Brenna is doing a lot better. Day 3 was the worst. She wouldn't open her mouth at all. She would cry (silently cuz she had no voice) in pain at random moments when her throat hurt. Her fever was still up to the 102 mark or so. Her breathing was labored and congested sounding (though no congestion really present). But after that, she started looking up. By Day 4 and then 5, the breathing was better, the fever continued to come down, the pain seemed to be getting better and she was back to talking. Now, today, after Day 7, she is *almost* back to normal. She hasn't had a notable fever the last two days and her only 'symptom' is a yucky cough that I've heard stays around for a while. Tomorrow, I'm calling it. She's good to go! (well, assuming nothing comes up overnight or anything) We will be celebrating Halloween (even if Brad is still too sick to go...I'll brave it myself I suppose)!

Now, Brad is on the Evil Day 3 (I coined that term myself). He is old enough and articulate enough to express his symptoms. He can't talk (voice is gone), has the most horrendous continuos headache imaginable, claims his throat closes up for periods of time, and just basically feels like crap! (sorry) He has been in bed most of the time since getting sick, except for the few occassions where he has to watch Brenna play (while I get Brooke here or there)..and then its from a resting position on the couch. Today he was called in some pain meds and has some cough syrup. But hopefully, if he follows Brenna's same pattern, by tomorrow he will start improving, slowly. We'll see and hope and pray for the best.

While Brenna is feeling better, she still enjoys getting to cuddle with Daddy on the bed....(even Barkley was taking a nap!)....

In the meantime, while Brooke and I have been well, we try to do things as normal as possible. I feel the stares when people hear her sister has swine flu, but really..come on people! I am doing my best by what I know. And one thing I KNOW is that Brooke is not sick and should not have to stay home just because her sister is sick. And for all that matters, by tomorrow, Brenna will offically be in the clear to come out of quarantine as well. But anyways...just had to get that off my chest.

So, today, after school, I took her to Farm Patch where they set up a pretty cool hay maze every year. We missed all the pumpkins (but had already done that elsewhere anyway), but Brooke had a lot of fun in the maze. However, we both kept commenting how we wished Brenna was there b/c she would've had sooo much fun. Oh well. :-(

Sorry for so many pictures..but, I swear it didn't feel like I was taking very many. I really only had a total of 30 pictures on my camera (and that was including ones of Daddy and Brenna napping too!). She just really doesn't take a bad picture!

The entrance (with the only pumpkins they had left!)...

The animal section of the hay maze...Finding a dead end...

The tin man!She was showing me how she wasn't scared to touch the spiders...Ewww!

Outside the hay maze, they had this cool truck we had to take a picture in...

And a sandbox thingy filled with kernels of corn! (a place Brenna woulda had a blast in!)...

My pretty girl...