Back to routine?

I'm not exactly sure I can rise to this occasion. Evie was coughing last night, Bob spent the night in distress unable to sleep, after spending the day taking extra medications so he could breathe. We may have made things worse by rubbing his feet with hyssop and lavender. I've had an itchy nose and throat all day yesterday as well. Now I am contemplating driving Evie to class, Loren to Henrietta and back, allowing Bob to drive solo to a doctor's visit if we can get one set, and me doing a massage this afternoon.
I just want to crawl back into the same little cocoon I've been in, while home, sick for the last week+.

Child's view of winter pruning

Sad, concerned face: "Mommy, you know the pear tree that has the little pears, not the big pears? well... a whole lot of the tree branches fell off and almost all of them are laying on the ground..."

And four!

We have a positive flu diagnosis from Loren's test, and Bob is home from work on bedrest and prednisolone. I am heading off to find oreganol and a humidifier.

Three Down

And number three down... after Loren realized she wasn't well and then threw up first thing this morning, and I helped her and Evie throughout the day; I finally succumbed to a headache and allover joint ache malaise. Mid afternoon, I rested on the couch while Loren slept and Evie came and tucked her freezing feet against me and (she is much better today but still coughing badly) she finally napped... I woke up an hour later and unlocked doors for Bob and limped to the bathroom and then crawled back under the covers. May I just say, however, that Extra Strength Tylenol is a miracle drug. I haven't taken it before and have no idea why it worked such a change in me, but 45 minutes later I was up, moving, and helping again. Now my headache is returning and I'm going to retreat to bed. But I feel oddly reassured, maybe this thing is running through quickly. One more dose of oreganol tonight.

Two Down...

Evie gradually improved yesterday after vomiting several times. She refused fever meds until Dad got home and he laid on the couch with her in his lap and read to her and she finally fell asleep. After that she ate rice and took the first dose of Zithromax and managed to sleep through the night although she coughed continuously. My bronchia is starting to tickle so I am taking oreganol again.
Loren woke up with a queasy stomach, a headache, 101.3 fever, and just vomited "But I Feel Much Better now Mom!"
Bob has been sharing his inhaler with Loren. The refill on her script was $80 and I didn't fill it. I wonder if he'll skate around this one?

Substance P and Fibromyalgia

http://www.myalgia.com/chrpain.htm

I suspect this is pertinent and we should all read up on this one. I will post this on my favorite link section also. but I stumbled upon the info that substance P is lacking in the skin of a mole rat who lives in tunnels underground in Africa, and therefore can't feel any pain. Hmmmm..... what if there was too MUCH substance P? And sure enough, a google search reveals much data on this and fibromyalgia sufferers. What came to mind is my brother Brian, who for his entire life has alway had heightened sensitivity to pain; but also my recent stroke client, and also Tracy, and myself, and Bob's lupus side affects which mimic chronic fatigue/fibromyalgia .... and I see there is stuff about sleep interuption in here... This link is just one, I expect I will be finding more that is pertinent on this as I keep researching.

Sick child

My youngest has had a cough with fever spiking on and off over the last couple days. We went in for a doctor visit and concluded this is probably turning into bronchitis so we have started antibiotics. She informed me that chlorithromycine tastes really terrible. The dr. likes it because it has 2 doses a day over 7 days and is similar to zithromycine except with that more complete coverage. Clearly he doesn't have to swallow it. I'm so thankful I live with my kids in this century, I wonder how mothers endured watching their kids sicken with so little intervention in the past. Although I do wish I had better herbal knowledge and enough attention span to apply some natural remedies.
We've canceled all our engagements this week so far. I think I'm bound to go collapse now myself. I have been wrapping up data entry, budgeting, bill paying, homeschooling reports, and now I am hoping that the dust will settle and I'll feel caught up and happy for a day or two; despite the dog hair and dirt that magically continues to accumulate on the floors. Of course, give me a space of a minute and I can name a large project that is looming out there waiting for my attention *** got one - how about Dad's birthday gift that needs to be mailed and their late Christmas present which is far overdue, which has to have photos gathered to be loaded onto their digital frame!? After Tracy's example I was thinking about Picasa for that but have to investigate it.