Rant: Another one bites the dust

Sunday night Alex started complaining that he was sick. At first we wrote in off as jealously because Maddie was getting all the attention and special treatment because of her "strip throat." She kept calling it something different everytime she talked about it. Stuck throat, straight throat, strepped throat, and our favorite--strip throat. Here she is

But a few hours after we went to bed, he woke us up and we knew he wasn't faking. He's been pretty miserable since then, and it went even further downhill early this morning when he started vomiting and not being able to keep anything down. The doctor was able to squeeze us in last night, so instead of going to piano lessons, we loaded up and I hauled everyone to the once-again PACKED and totally germ-infested doctor's office.

His strep test--negative. Flu-test--negative but probable. She thought that because it was early into it that his viral load wasn't high enough yet to make it positive. Or something like that. ALL the kids were screaming and fighting over my iphone and I could barely hear her in the tiny, echoing den of horrors. The kids were tired and cranky because it was dinner time, we felt like we had lived there the past few days, and angry because how dare I only own one iphone for them to share. Avery managed to snap these when he had gained possession after a major head-banging on the floor tantrum. Maddie was practicing her splits and although he was feeling crappy, Alex couldn't resist jumping down off the table to shove her the rest of the way down, eliciting an eardrum-shattering scream with some crying.

Luckily, the doctor gave us some meds for today in case he got worse. He got worse. So I filled the prescription this morning, brought it home and gave it to him, and then watched him promptly barf it up 15 minutes later. Considering I paid $150 for 10 teaspoons of the stuff, I basically watched $15 get flushed down the drain without helping him a bit. Is there a shot version of that stuff? Cuz he's still barfing and I'm afraid the tonight's dose will end up in the toilet, too.

Jeremy's out of town and just emailed me that he's now feeling sick. So we're spreading our infected joy across the map now. You're all welcome, fellow passengers on his flight. I'm sure tomorrow you'll be thanking the anonymous germ-doner with a one-finger salute as you're suffering in your fetal position, shivering from feverish chills, and wishing you were dead.

Now who's going to volunteer to come take over when I inevitably bite the dust sometime in the next week? Come on, settle down. Don't everyone speak up at once. No takers? Hmm.

Don't worry. I totally get it.