rough week

It's been a very rough week at our house.  Last Sunday Jeff started feeling sick in the evening.  He progressively got worse and even took himself to the doctor on Tuesday.  If you know Jeff, then you know he must have been feeling really lousy to go to the doctor.  By Wednesday the girls all had fevers and were complaining of sore throats and just the all around aches.  Caimbree was super scary because she was really lethargic.  I took them into urgent care.  While we were waiting, Caimbree puked all over the room.  Finally the doctor came in and they were all diagnosed with influenza.  They got prescriptions for Tamiflu and orders for a nebulizer.  The doctor was especially concerned with Caimbree.  She said the vomiting was because of the influenza.  Just like with strep, infants and young children's bodies oftentimes have stomach issues.  We got the girls home and Caimbree continued to decline.  She couldn't stop puking, her fever was getting higher, she was so lethargic, and had altogether stopped crying.  By this time urgent care was closed, so Jeff stayed home with the girls and I took Caimbree to the emergency room.  Of course they couldn't really do anything with her and just had me feed her and stay there awhile to see if she could keep it down. An hour after I got home Savanna as really struggling.  I went in thinking she was just achy but she had puked all over her bed.  Jeff was still not better so all of the taking care of the girls fell on me.  The next few days and nights are kind of a blur.  Lots of crying, whining, and screaming.  High fevers, chills, and body aches. Just when I thought I might be the only one to be safe, I got it Friday.  I felt like I had been run over by a truck.  My fever was at 104 and my throat was killing me by the end of the day. Jeff, Savanna, and Caimbree seemed to be feeling a lot better.  Savanna and Caimbree actually both started feeling better quite quickly.  Heidi on the other hand continued to have a super high fever, screamed about her throat, and could't sleep more than 30 minutes at a time.  By Saturday I finally just took myself to urgent care. I couldn't get the fever to budge even with Tylenol and Advil, and I was so weak and dizzy. They said I had strep.  So I got an antibiotic.  I had one for Heidi but hadn't given her any because I wasn't sure if she needed it. Since they said I had strep, I figured she probably did too.  Once I gave her the antibiotic the fever finally broke and she stopped complaining about her throat and started to perk up a little.  My throat is nothing like it was and my fever seems to be gone.  While none of us are completely better, we are at least headed in the right direction.  I have no doubt the cough will be with us for at least another week.  We have felt so blessed during this difficult time for our family.  We have had family and friends continually calling and texting to see how we were doing.  We have had meals, jello, and popsicles dropped off on our porch.  My fridge is full of yummy soup from so many kind friends.  I have never felt such an outpouring of love and concern for our little family and it made this awful, awful illness more bearable.  I hope we never, ever get influenza again and I also hope that in the future I will have a chance to pay forward the kindness shown to our family.