Sickness

Well, we've sent Gommie and Pop home. And in typical fashion, Gommie is sick with the sniffles (she always picks up something here, though that is better than the stomach flu she managed last time).

And Mama went to the doc-in-the-box this morning. Diagnosis: bronchitis. I've even started taking OTC cold meds.

The kids are slowly recovering, though with ears that the pediatrician, whom we saw yesterday (about 45 minutes before Mama Teacher and her son were there for the same reason) wants us to watch. We have garlic mullen drops to make sure no infections set in.

But the most harrowing part of the whole sickness here was our run to the hospital Friday night. Mama and I had just returned from a lovely meal of Indian food (mmmm, malai kofta and mango lassis and peshwari nan!!) when Sis started coughing her lungs out on the monitor--she hadn't even been sick when we left, though Bud had been sick about a week. Gommie came up to help as Sis struggled to breathe. It was irregular and difficult (with those awful striations when they breathe in so hard their clavicles show). Mama brought saline. And Sis promptly threw up dinner and snot all over me. Then she was really hysterical and coughing and having trouble catching her breath through sobs. So we went to the hospital.

She calmed down on the way over. The Christmas lights were beautiful. And she's not out often at night. She really enjoyed looking for nativities, which have been an obsession this holiday season (she was the only child who could identify the baby Jesus in a story that referred to the nativity but didn't mention Jesus by name. Those of you who know us may appreciate that irony). I think it's because of all the babies she knows in playgroup and her interest in her own babyhood.

Anyway, her pulse ox on check-in was 100, which is perfect. And she was breathing more normally, if somewhat croupy. We got to our exam room and the young attending doctor spoke of pneumonia and chest x-rays but the other doctor (her supervisor, a resident, maybe?? I don't know the exact hierarchies of doctors) said it was a mucous plug (no, not that kind!) that must have blocked her little airway. He reassured us that pneumonia just didn't come and go while you waited and her chest sounded clear.

It was a relatively short ER trip and Sis was very brave, curious even (a lot like Aunt Banana who loved her ER trip to Lenox Hill when she sliced open her finger on a NY trip. And now she's an RN).

The worst part? Sis had thrown up on Shirt, which then needed a good washing. And she refused to sleep without him so we all waited up while he washed and dried. But by 2 a.m. we were all asleep in bed.

Only to be up at 6.

No wonder we're all sick.