Whew. It's been a long 3+ weeks of quarantine. We had pertussis (whooping cough) go through our house, and we are finally coming to the end of it. Or at least the end of the contagious phase.
I appear to be the only one who escaped the cough. Brian has it but not as bad as the kids did/do. But even for Sophie and Nathaniel there has been no whooping, vomiting, for which I am extremely grateful. I know pertussis can be very serious, which is why Brian and I have stayed home as much as possible and kept the kids home completely as soon as we became aware that that's what their cough might actually be. It took 11 days to get their test results back which, ah!, was so frustrating, but I'm glad that we got a confirmation on it eventually.
So far, the worst part has been at night; why do colds always have to be worse at night?! Brings me back to the newborn phase, especially with Nathaniel, as he has always had a harder time getting over respiratory issues. I'm really thankful they didn't come down with it at the exact same time, since it seems they've both had about a week of bad nights and one at a time is hard enough to deal with.
I'm also grateful for our doctors who have been answering emails and calling to check to on us and encouraging me. It makes a mama feel pretty relieved to hear the doctor say "You're doing all the right things and I so appreciate your care and efforts." I don't know about anyone else, but most of the time I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing, so that validation is really nice.
We've been upping our intake of probiotics and other immune boosting herbs and foods and medicines.
As you can see, we have quite the collection of medicinal support here right now. The Serious Cough and Deep Lung tinctures have been working well for calming a coughing fit; I really like that they are in spray pump bottles too, much less messy for the middle of the night/half sleeping child situation.
Brian and I are also taking antibiotics. I'm glad that it worked out to avoid them for the kids, but Brian and I weren't going to be through the contagious phase for quite awhile still ( I haven't even started having symptoms) and enough is enough as far as quarantine goes.
Really looking forward to going to church again and hanging out with people. The most I've been out is to the grocery store and one appointment with Alicia.
Brian and the kids rode along a couple times on my grocery trips, just to get out of the house. We even picked up pizza once for a treat and they ate it in the van while I shopped, just to break up the monotony a little bit.
I'm glad that when this is all done that kids will have immunity against this for many years...I don't want to go through this again anytime soon! But we're surviving and I have to say so far for whooping cough it's gone better than I ever thought it could. But again, I'm so ready to be done with this.
****Update****
So last night did not go very good. Nathaniel had a couple longer more intense, choking type coughing fits.
We decided to start him antibiotics, since our Dr had said to do that if he seemed worse. At this point he should be "stable" or improving, but because of his past respiratory issues she thought maybe he might not fight it off as well as Sophie did.
So I went on a midnight run to find a 24hr pharmacy. Got home, tried giving him the first dose, only got half in because they gave me pills instead of the liquid. Was up til 2:30am and then several times after.
Called the pharmacy this morning to ask for tips to get the pills down and it turns out there was some confusion and they were actually supposed to give me the liquid antibiotics. Plus the pills were stronger dose than he was prescribed, so it's actually good we didn't get him to take both. God is watching out for us, even though this is hard and at times scary and intense.
This cough is so strange.... Nathaniel is fine unless he is coughing and hardly coughs at all during the day. Nighttime is worse, but again once the coughing fit is over he is good to go. So confusing and an emotional rollercoaster. Like earlier, he was coughing a little and I asked him, "You ok?", And he said, "Yeah. Mom, I want a skateboard for Christmas." Doesn't seem to phase him much, which I am grateful for.
Prayers that the antibiotics would help would be wonderful.
We happen to be reading through Job right now for our family devotions. I feel Job's pain when he says, "I cannot catch my breath." I also feel the truth of this verse, " He wounds, but He binds up; He shatters, but His hands heal." I might feel overwhelmed right now, and so exhausted, but I know that He cares and that He does not delight in our suffering, and He will bring us through this too, as He always has before.
I appear to be the only one who escaped the cough. Brian has it but not as bad as the kids did/do. But even for Sophie and Nathaniel there has been no whooping, vomiting, for which I am extremely grateful. I know pertussis can be very serious, which is why Brian and I have stayed home as much as possible and kept the kids home completely as soon as we became aware that that's what their cough might actually be. It took 11 days to get their test results back which, ah!, was so frustrating, but I'm glad that we got a confirmation on it eventually.
So far, the worst part has been at night; why do colds always have to be worse at night?! Brings me back to the newborn phase, especially with Nathaniel, as he has always had a harder time getting over respiratory issues. I'm really thankful they didn't come down with it at the exact same time, since it seems they've both had about a week of bad nights and one at a time is hard enough to deal with.
I'm also grateful for our doctors who have been answering emails and calling to check to on us and encouraging me. It makes a mama feel pretty relieved to hear the doctor say "You're doing all the right things and I so appreciate your care and efforts." I don't know about anyone else, but most of the time I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing, so that validation is really nice.
We've been upping our intake of probiotics and other immune boosting herbs and foods and medicines.
As you can see, we have quite the collection of medicinal support here right now. The Serious Cough and Deep Lung tinctures have been working well for calming a coughing fit; I really like that they are in spray pump bottles too, much less messy for the middle of the night/half sleeping child situation.
Brian and I are also taking antibiotics. I'm glad that it worked out to avoid them for the kids, but Brian and I weren't going to be through the contagious phase for quite awhile still ( I haven't even started having symptoms) and enough is enough as far as quarantine goes.
Really looking forward to going to church again and hanging out with people. The most I've been out is to the grocery store and one appointment with Alicia.
Brian and the kids rode along a couple times on my grocery trips, just to get out of the house. We even picked up pizza once for a treat and they ate it in the van while I shopped, just to break up the monotony a little bit.
I'm glad that when this is all done that kids will have immunity against this for many years...I don't want to go through this again anytime soon! But we're surviving and I have to say so far for whooping cough it's gone better than I ever thought it could. But again, I'm so ready to be done with this.
****Update****
So last night did not go very good. Nathaniel had a couple longer more intense, choking type coughing fits.
We decided to start him antibiotics, since our Dr had said to do that if he seemed worse. At this point he should be "stable" or improving, but because of his past respiratory issues she thought maybe he might not fight it off as well as Sophie did.
So I went on a midnight run to find a 24hr pharmacy. Got home, tried giving him the first dose, only got half in because they gave me pills instead of the liquid. Was up til 2:30am and then several times after.
Called the pharmacy this morning to ask for tips to get the pills down and it turns out there was some confusion and they were actually supposed to give me the liquid antibiotics. Plus the pills were stronger dose than he was prescribed, so it's actually good we didn't get him to take both. God is watching out for us, even though this is hard and at times scary and intense.
This cough is so strange.... Nathaniel is fine unless he is coughing and hardly coughs at all during the day. Nighttime is worse, but again once the coughing fit is over he is good to go. So confusing and an emotional rollercoaster. Like earlier, he was coughing a little and I asked him, "You ok?", And he said, "Yeah. Mom, I want a skateboard for Christmas." Doesn't seem to phase him much, which I am grateful for.
Prayers that the antibiotics would help would be wonderful.
We happen to be reading through Job right now for our family devotions. I feel Job's pain when he says, "I cannot catch my breath." I also feel the truth of this verse, " He wounds, but He binds up; He shatters, but His hands heal." I might feel overwhelmed right now, and so exhausted, but I know that He cares and that He does not delight in our suffering, and He will bring us through this too, as He always has before.
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