Wed Oct 18

If you're not here in E. Texas, you may not know about our weather.  It's crazy.  A few years ago we had snow on Valentine's Day.  It was on a Friday that year.  By Sunday, the snow was gone & we were running the A/C.  Yes....crazy weather, I tell ya!  Due to the weird weather, last week when a cold front came through, we all expected that it was finally going to be Fall-ish weather.  Hooray!  Nope, within 24 hours, we were in the 90s again.  Back & forth it's gone ever since, mostly staying warmer.  With the crazy up & down of the thermometer, 3 out of our 5 kids are coughing.  I'm positive it's all allergy-related stuff, but none the less, they're coughing.  I've been giving everyone some OTC cough/cold medicine.  Yesterday afternoon, Samuel said that his throat hurt "a lot".  Now, Samuel has well....his dad's pain tolerance, which isn't much.  :)  So a "really" sore throat on him might not be so horrific.  Then again, he's had ear infections before where the goo was running from his ears & down his neck before he ever mentioned that they were sore.  So ya just don't know with this kid.  I gave him some Tylenol last night & that seemed to fix it.

This morning, he got up & was real lethargic.  He whined & fussed about getting dressed (I ended up dressing him like an infant while he lay lifeless in my lap!).  He barely touched breakfast.  He said his throat hurt worse than it had yesterday.  When it was time to leave, we found him---back in bed, under his covers.  :(  Poor baby...  So I let him stay home.  I told him that we'd go to the doctor & see what was wrong.

This is what I wrote this afternoon when we got home from the doctor's office:

We're back from the doc....and sick or not, we've had a really sweet day together.  It's nice to have some one on one time with my little man.  Seems like I never get that anymore.

 

The doctor said that strep is going around a lot right now and since he's prone to getting it, he went ahead & wrote me out a Rx for it.  We won't get the OFFICIAL strep test back til later this afternoon, but Dr. H said that his throat looks like a throat w/ strep.  He said he'd call it "pharyngitis pending strep test results".  So I guess we'll see....

 

Samuel was really tired this morning, so he layed on the couch watching cartoons until time to leave for the doctor.  After we got done w/ the doc, it was lunchtime, so I took him to McDonald's.  I told him that, since he was feeling bad, he didn't need to play.  He was totally OK with that (which is completely abnormal for Samuel--he'd usually be the one begging to go slide).  We sat together in a little 2 person booth & shared french fries (we didn't eat off the same fry or dip in the same ketchup just in case!!).  When we got done there, we dropped off his Rx at the drug store & went to get my haircut.  He was so funny, sitting in the empty chair next to me, pretending it was a rocketship.  He had me & Annie (the lady who does my hair) giggling as he said things like "Engage rocket boosters!", "Attach the big guns & prepare to fire!".  It was so funny!  Of course, all of this with blue bunny (his beloved stuffed rabbit) by his side.  And before my haircut, while we were sitting to wait for Annie, he was in my lap snuggling me when he said "Mommy, I love you more than everybody else....well, except God."  When I asked why he loved God more, he said "Because He's our King!".  It was cute because he had a real "duh!!" sound to his voice when he said that.  When we finished with my haircut, we picked up his medicine.  He was coughing while we sat in line at Walgreen's so we decided that a sore throat needs icecream!  :)  Luckily, Braum's is across the road.

 

All in all, it was a really neat day with my wittle punkin.  I'm not sure if he has strep, but whatever he's got, I think he was happy to have a day to himself w/ mom.  (And shhh...don't tell the school....I did, too!)

 

UPDATE:  It is indeed strep.  Glad we went in & that we went ahead & filled his Rx.  He should be safe to go back to school tomorrow since we started the med early in the day.