A rough winter......

I don't kcow if that title quite describes it well enough-maybe I should have titled it: "The winter we wanted to forget!" Seriously-healthwise, this has been the toughest season we have had........ever..........in our entire parenting careers.  Since Thanksgiving, there has always been someone sick at our house.  I'm not kidding.  The only one who was spared was our 17 year old son, but that is only because he works a full time night job and sleeps during the day, so we don't see him enough to infect him!  The rest of us got sick at least 2, 3, or 4 times over the past two months. Colds, congestion, fevers, vomiting (that was fun!), sore throats, coughs, and our latest.....bronchitis and pneumonia.

 I spent last weekend at the emergency room with my 11 year old daughter who was throwing up 10 times a day, unable to keep anything down. An x-ray, several tests, and a long wait later....they told us she was in the beginning stages of pneumonia.    She spent the entire week home from school, recovering and slowly getting back her strength.  Besides a little wheezing and some coughing, you'd never guess she'd been so sick.  She's continuing with breathing treatments, so we anticipate a full recovery! 

Just after she started recovering, 3 more of us developed the same awful, uncontrollable cough (yes-I was one of the lucky ones!)  When things  weren't improving and mom wasn't getting more than 3 hours of sleep a nite (!), off we shuffled to the doctor to get our own round of antibiotics and steroids to cure what we had.....bronchitis.  We've nearly finished our meds and things are improving....slowly. There are still many coughing fits, but they're not as often-and we're definitely sleeping better at nite. 

If there ever were a time I was excited for spring to come, that would be now.  It can't arrive soon enough.  Being able to be outside in the fresh air, instead of closed up inside with all the germs will certainly improve our chances! Plus, it's a nice mental boost, too. Yes, this was a rough winter...but I can't say it wasn't memorable!  The winter of '12 will definitely go down in history for us!