The Bartholomews: Influenza

Well, it hit our house (or Nate more specifically) HARD. We had big plans for Ben's section swim meet in Duluth a couple of weekends ago that included a UMD hockey game in Duluth the night before. Nate was very excited for the hockey game, so insisted on Friday morning that although his voice was horse he was not sick. When he got home from school all seemed well. So, off we headed to Duluth to meet Kyle who was flying into the Duluth airport. We had reserved a room at the Holiday Inn downtown, and the boys decided to eat dinner at the arena so that they could swim briefly.

After swimming we headed to the arena. I wish I had a picture of Nate's face after we sat down and they started announcing the starting lineups with all the lights going. Both boys had a blast. Nate cheered and heckled the other team. He even started heckling UMD who was not playing the greatest. I loved Ben's confusion and exclamation of "goalie....GOALIE!!!!" When UMD pulled their goalie at the end of the third period.

When we got back to the hotel room, Nate seemed a bit flushed and when I felt his forehead, he was burning up. She I got out the thermometer (glad I thought to pack it) and took his temp. I had a heart attack when it read 107.7!!! Kyle had to remind me that it couldn't really be that high. I took his temp again and it was only 101.5. PHEW!!! It was a long night for Nate (and I). He was getting more and more miserable. When we got up in the morning, his fever was over 102. So, we made the decision that after a breakfast at Perkins, Kyle and Nate would head home and Ben and I would go to his swim meet. I am very glad that we had two vehicles in Duluth and this was an option. The section swim meet is a long day even if you are not sick! And Nate by this point was definitely sick with a fever of 103.8 even after ibuprofen.

BEN - swam great at sections ....will do another entry about him.

Nate initially improved slightly, and even attempted school on Tuesday when it seemed as if he was finally over his fever. However, he coughed all day and when he got home he looked miserable. AND his temp was back over 102. AND I could audible hear him wheezing. So, on Wednesday I took him Into the doctor who could hear wheezing and pneumonia. She put him on an antibiotic, nebs 4 times a day, and said to keep up with his steroid inhaler. We tried that for a day, and we were just not making it in between nebs. We also had some purple lips at times, and I was very uncomfortable about his ability to be moving air effectively at this point. So, I put a call into his pediatric pulmonologist in the cities who felt that we needed to start oral steroids as well. It was a few nerve racking days before they really started to have an effect, but Nate slowly started to improve.

He is finally back to school, and tonight (a week and a half later) his appetite finally returned with a vengeance. AFTER having seconds of dinner he proceeded to eat 2 big bowls of fruit loops. He still coughs, we are still doing nebs, we are not quite done with the antibiotics....but he is certainly much much better. Thank goodness! His asthma has not acted up that badly since he was 2 years old! I don't want to repeat that again any time soon!