A Very Tiring Couple of Weeks

Dallin is developing more and more of a personality. He makes us laugh so hard, it's great. What a fun little addition to our family he has been.

He and Nella (our puppy) have been becoming good friends. They have their "secret spot" under the table where only the two of them fit. They meet under there and find bits of food to share with eachother.

Dallin loves feeling like a big boy, and one of the things he loves to do is feed Nella. He'll give her a handful of food in her bowl, and put it in the most random place he can find, and she'll come running. She'll eat it, and then the process starts over again.

Cory is as funny as ever. He's growing so much, it is amazing. Here is him reminding us all of Aunt Reenie.

We have had a very intense couple of weeks in the Tilton household...LOTS of sickness.

Here is Nella babysitting our sick little Bryson. (You were right, Lisl, Boxers ARE wonderful babysitters!)

We started out with Cory getting sick. He missed four days of school because of the regular stuff: sore throat, fever, and just feeling lousy. On Thursday he developed a rash, and with the other symptoms, I figured that it was scarlet fever, so I scheduled an appointment with the doc the next day.

The next day rolls around and the other two boys start acting sick, so I get them all sqeezed in to Cory's appointment, and we find that sure enough, Cory has scarlet fever, and Bryson has strep throat, and Dallin was showing signs of strep, so antibiotics all around.

Cory's rash cleared up fairly fast, but he developed a bad cough, and we found out that he had bronchitus on top of scarlet fever. For added concern, Cory's asthma acted up a bit because of the irritation in his lungs. The same day the other two boys spiked a fever in about an hour, going all the way to 104.7 and 104.3. I didn't know it was safe having a fever that high, but the doc didn't seem to worried, he just told me to keep the tylonol going, etc. So for about four days they ran a high fever (it would only go down to about 103 with tylonol). Two boys started with diarrhea, and the other started puking.

By Monday, Cory was doing significantly better and was able to go back to school, and on Tuesday John got very sick and ended up having to take two and a half days off of work (I've only seen him do this once, and that was when he had the stomach flu so bad he actually tore a stomach muscle) The two younger boys broke out in a rash on Wednesday. I was concerned that the antibiotics weren't working, and they too were getting scarlet fever, or they were having an alergic reaction to the antibiotics. So, called the doc, but he was double booked for the day, and out for the next two days, so I took them both to urgent care that night.

(These pics really don't do it justice, but it'll give you an idea)

Dallin's rash wasn't too bad, but Bryson's was head to toe, and he was in obvious discomfort from it.

The Doc at the urgent care couldn't figure out what was going on, but agreed that it was probably a reaction to the antibiotics or scarlet fever, or maybe just a rash that breaks out after a fever breaks. So, he changed the antibiotics, and instructed me to do benadryl with him and Dallin. By this time, I of course was sick too. ughh.

The next day Dallin's rash was just about gone, but Bryson's got significantly worse, and he was still puking. He couldn't move off the couch, he just laid there (which for him is very very VERY unusual, even when he's sick).

I finally went into Walmart and talked to the pharmacist about doing hydrocortizone cream on his body, and she strongly recomended I get ahold of his doc ASAP because it was so inflamed. I thought about it, but wanted to give the new meds a little bit longer.

So, yesterday morning the rash started getting better in the morning, but had yet another flare up, the worst so far, so I called in to the doc, but of course he wasn't in the office, so I went to urgent care. They still don't know what it is, and instructed me to keep doing what I was doing with him. They gave him a shot of steroids (prednisone to help with inflamation) and another shot of benadryl (for the alergic reaction). He was extremely brave and barely cried, I'm very proud.

The shots had a significant effect on the rash, but this morning it is back up and going, but thankfully not as inflamed. WHO KNOWS!!! He seems to be in better spirits though, so maybe (HOPEFULLY!!) the worst has past. Unfortunately Cory has a fever today, must be viral because he's still on his antibiotics. He's also throwing up now.

So that is my very exhausting couple of weeks. Looks like it's not over yet, either. Wish us luck as we finish this round.