Sick Kids--Bah!

The twins are sick. One woke up with vomit in her hair and the other has been fighting a cough and congestion for a couple days.

I sent a detailed email to their pediatrician outlining their symptoms and my impression of what might be going on, and then ran the dishwasher, did laundry, jotted down the milligrams of their meds that I can never remember, and packed their bipap machines, circuits for Cough Assist, and my hospital bag while I waited for her to reply. I thought about this HUGE hockey game I have coming up on Wednesday and how I would get coverage at the hospital so that I could sneak away to see this game I've been waiting for for seven months. And I thought about Jenna's birthday on Thursday and how I hope we're all healthy and at home to make the day special for her.

The doctor said just hang out and wait. So, we wait. I hope we're waiting for them to get better. But we just did this same dance in November, and it ended up with a scary crashing at urgent care, a pricey ambulance ride, and what turned out to be simple pneumonia. I don't know what to expect this time, but I guess we're ready for it.

That's the wonderful thing about living in a warm climate and having a bit of luck with keeping the kids healthy--I haven't had to endure the experience of serious illness very often. But the twins are at high risk for respiratory infection, and so it goes: prepare now, or scramble later. This is the price we pay for not homeschooling them. Schools have germs. This is flu and RSV season. I've been anticipating serious illness for months. We've been lucky.

Lauren hasn't thrown up since the dark hours of this morning. Kyle continues to require the Cough Assist and suction every ten minutes or so. We'll see what tomorrow brings. My bag is still packed, just in case. I *was* a Girl Scout ("be prepared") for twelve years, you know.

Okay, I've no photos of sick kids to share. I hate to leave a blog post without a photo, though. How about I highlight my love for Canada with this pic I took of Kyle before school last week? I love Canada so much that I force my not-old-enough-to-read child to prance around as it's poster child.