Fo’ shizzle.

Well, it’s been a month, and we’ve been to Texas and back. It was a great trip, although I didn’t get to see two of my closest and oldest (haha, MacLean – you’re OLD!!) friends because…

Wait for it…

Wait for it…

THE KIDS ALL GOT SICK!

Yes, Tom was not there, so it was time for illnesses. It all started the Wednesday after Tom left. The kids and I were at my sister’s house eating lunch, and Patrick stood up and puked all over her floor. Since puking is often caused by Patrick’s allergies, I didn’t think too much of it. I just figured that he had eaten something with yellow dye in it. But then he got a fever. Crap. Crapcrapcrap.

So, on Thursday he spent the day with a nice fever. Thursday night, I was meeting two of my oldest friends for dinner, and I really didn’t want to miss it. So, my mother insisted that she would take care of Patrick while I went. After two hours, I got the call: Patrick had thrown up again and was sounding very croupy. I headed back to the folks’ estate and mentally prepared myself for a night of no sleep.

When I got home, Patrick was curled up on a leather chair with Blankie. I put him in my bed, and then I got Johnny down and crashed. A few hours later, around 4AM, Patrick woke up in a horrible coughing fit. I took him out to the kitchen to give him a breathing treatment in an attempt to open up his airways. It helped calm him down, but he was still really croupy. His cough was so bad that my father came out to check on us, and headed straight back to his room to get dressed – we were headed to the emergency room.

At the emergency room, Dad stayed in the car with Johnny while I took Patrick in. Thank goodness for that – Dad hates vomiting, and some poor young man (maybe 20 years old) was in the waiting room regurgitating his last 6 meals. It would have made my father a basket case.

Anyway, they took Patrick back pretty quickly and diagnosed croup. Since he was feeling so crappy and since he was having so much trouble breathing, they gave him high-dose steroids before we left. I guess my dream of him riding in the Tour de France this year is shot, huh? Anyway, he started to improve by about 7 AM, and he and I (and good old Johnny) slept until around 10 AM.

I thought that might be the end of it, but…

Monday morning at 4 AM, Gracie woke up with the coughing. I took her to a weird little urgent care/ER in The Woodlands, Texas. It was nice because there was no wait, but it was expensive, since it was an ER co-pay. Anyway, they diagnosed her croup, but also an added bonus, they told me that they thought she had pneumonia. They decided not to do a chest x-ray because she hadn’t been on antibiotics in over a year (as far as I could recall), and instead just put her on Amoxicillin. They also put her on prescription steroids for the croup. Within about 2 hours of her first dose of Amoxicillin, she started to improve.

That left just Emma and Johnny. On Monday afternoon, Emma puked. Then she puked Monday night. So, I waited. I figured that if she got the cough, we would just wait it out, since she is older and it’s only a virus. But then her cough got nasty, and Johnny and I started to get icky, so I scheduled an appointment with our old pediatrician’s office (Dr. Abel Paredes is awesome, in case anyone has a kid in Houston and needs a new pediatrician). Dr. Crane-Story, Dr. P’s partner, was able to see us and told me that Emma had bronchitis, but that Johnny was okay. So, we went to Walgreen’s and got Emma’s medication. I had two kids with three different medications (four meds if you count Emma’s daily kidney meds) to juggle. Sheesh.

Anyway, by that weekend they were all fine, but not before they infected everyone else. All told, 12 people showed symptoms of whatever it was Patrick had. There were the five of us, five nieces, one nephew, and a sister. And poor Patrick was Patient Zero. Thank goodness it wasn’t that dreadful bird flu I’ve been hearing so much about. You know, the one that George Bush created in Karl Rove’s laboratory (pronounced, of course, lah-boor-a-tor-ee).

Anyway, otherwise it was a great trip. I got to see my grandfather, which was wonderful, and my cousin Charlie, which was also fun (the kids LOVED him – I felt sorry for him because they wouldn’t leave him alone). I got to visit all the old restaurants I love, but couldn’t eat at any of them because of Johnny’s allergies. I got to see some Thetas, and they all look so fantastic. The car trip was great – our kids have been raised in that minivan, so they know how to behave (although we had to get a new battery for the van at 8 PM the night before we left for home because the one we had installed last summer died without warning while we were in church – does that strike you as a sign??).

But, we’re back home, getting ready for school to start. Buying clothes, uniforms and supplies and getting back to a reasonable sleep schedule. I’ll try to update more now that we’re back.

Did you miss me?