It’s all fun and games until someone runs out of tissues.
Near the end of the Thanksgiving break, the unwanted sniffles rolled through my house like a thief in the air. The mild virus weaved in and out of the defensive line, dodging every disinfectant wipe and spray its in general direction. This cold was going to show soap that it was ready to fight. My ill prepared children failed to block most of the squeezes and coughs with their elbows, all with the end result of the entire house having a runny nose. There was no fever or pain until my youngest who rarely catches a cold became pretty sick. She became very clingy and not quite like herself, so I knew what had to be done.
So on Tuesday which would have been the return to school day, ended up starting off with a trip to the doctor’s office instead. I thought that I was being overanxious following my middle daughter’s bout with pneumonia in the spring and this visit for my youngest first appeared that nothing was wrong. She had a low grade fever and healthy sounding lungs. There was no visible throat problems and it appears that we were nearly in the clear when a peek in the ear showed an infection was brewing. My daughter’s doctor was in amazement that the kid had expressed no pain, but needless to say a trip to the pharmacy was in order on the way home to pick up an antibiotic.
Our pharmacy is in the grocery store close to our house and it was not out of the way. We went to the pharmacy and naturally they asked for additional time. So my youngest daughter and I walked with a cart throughout the store. I was quickly taught by my quick thinking five year old that a slice rainbow cake helps with curing a bad earache. Food dye and sugar, well I guess its okay this time. I quietly grumbled at the $4.99 price tag when she said it just won’t be fair to walk past chocolate cake without grabbing a slice for her grandma too. Quickly the cart filled with $70 worth of groceries I did not know that we needed. Then the pharmacy needed to know what flavor this girl wanted and she picked grape which watching her attempt real grapes can be a challenging event in its own right. Both my wallet and myself were more than ready to go home.
When the trip to the pharmacy was over and we were home, she took her medicine like a champ and settled down for a four hour nap. My daughter was also out of school on Wednesday and her lovely bigger sister brought home two days worth of work home for the little one to do. Between the remote learning and the paper homework, she was more than ready with her excuse in hand to go back to school on Thursday. Although she has a week of medication left to take, it is safe to say she is well on the way back to health!
