Sick

These three pictures pretty much sum up the past 3 weeks for us. My kids all got some mystery virus, 4 of them were miserable and felt like crud for about 24 to 48 hours, with high fevers and headaches, and then they got better.

Then Ethan got sick. And he stayed sick... for a very long time. He developed some awful rash, then it disappeared, only to be replaced by some different awful rash, and his fevers where scary high. Like the kind of high where we didn't let him out of our sight for almost three days because I was so worried about febrile seizures.

Then his ankle and wrist joints started swelling up and they hurt him to move. We had to pick him up and carry him to the bathroom, and to bed, or to the couch to watch a bit of TV. He hurt too much to walk, or even hold a book or a glass of water. He was loosing weight. He didn't eat anything at all for almost a week.

We called his pediatrician multiple times, then we took him to see his pediatrician, and she sent us to the emergency room, twice! We had to talk to infectious disease doctors, and specialists. I was really scared. He just wasn't getting any better. We were getting worn so thin, with the worry and constant care that a house full of sick kids needs. (And of course when they all got sick, it was not on the same days but like dominoes...one after another.)

The kids who got over it quickly were being left to their own devices a lot, because I had to spend so much time taking Ethan to various doctor's offices and emergency room. They ate pretty much whatever they could scavenge from the recesses of the refrigerator and pantry for a week, because I hadn't time to go to the store and pick up milk, or cereal, or fruits and veggies. Logan was making sure that everyone was fed while I was with Ethan and his Dad was at work.

I didn't think that what the rest of the children had come down with was the same thing Ethan now had and the doctors were worried that whatever it was was most likely very contagious. (Plus I am 7 months pregnant...not a good time to be exposing myself to some mystery virus!) I became an obsessive handwasher overnight! I was so exhausted and so worried for my poor baby!

The doctors finally decided that what he has is a fairly common virus which usually effects very small children (babies and toddlers mostly) and that since he had apparently never had it as a little one, he was having a much worse case of it that normal. His body was just having a really hard time fighting it off. He had all kinds of test run on him, they checked for everything under the sun. And it turns out it was probably some virus he picked up at the supermarket from the grocery cart. He is still pretty sick, today was day 15. Normally this virus only lasts a few days in toddlers, often with relatively few symptoms. But the doctors said it might take him as long as 2 to 3 weeks for him to start really feeling better.

Thankfully I feel fine, and so does Rodrigo. We figure that we must have been exposed to this thing as small children at some point and now we are immune to it, since we've already passed the incubation period. The rest of the kids are doing fine now too, Only my sweet little Ethan is still fighting this thing off. He is up and eating some now, and he managed to walk a little bit by himself today. But for now he spends his entire day laying on the couch listening to audio-books, watching TV, or sleeping. He hasn't been up to play one single time in weeks. It's awful seeing your child this sick.

That's why things have been so quiet here, I just haven't really done anything at all blog worthy in over 2 weeks. (Other than have the giveaway of the dolls I made. Thankfully I got those finished up just before everyone started getting so sick!) My plans for handmade Christmas gifts are still very much in the plan stage, since other than knitting while at the hospital and doctors' offices I haven't found a moment to do anything at all lately!