2018 Flu Week

Well we can check having the flu off of Cooper's Fall bucket list.  We had a crazy weekend/week of sick and recovering toddler, but we seem to be coming to the other side now.

We knew something was up Thursday night-- after dinner Cooper just wanted me to hold him and got really upset when we tried to get his pajamas on.  We took his temperature and it was 102.  So we gave him some Advil and put him to bed.  He was pretty restless through the night, but slept til morning.  When I got him up, he was pretty upset and did not want to be put down.

So I pulled out the Baby K'tan to put him on my hip while I cooked breakfast.  After his breakfast and his medicine kicked in, he was good as new.  Running around and playing as usual.  But because of his fever we decided to go ahead and go to the doctor.  Several times he's had an ear infection where his only symptom has been a fever and since he'd had a runny nose most of the week we thought it might have caused some fluid in his ears and wanted to get it checked before the weekend.  

We got to the doctor and she said he really looked good.  His ears were clear and his throat was a little red.  She ordered flu and strep tests to rule those out.  Less than 10 minutes later she was back saying that he had Flu B.  She was pretty surprised because of how well he seemed to be doing, but prescribed him Tamiflu to try to help with the symptoms.

We headed home and he wanted to be up some more, so we tried out the carrier again.  He was perfectly content being right there most of the day!  We picked up his medicine and settled in for the afternoon.  After nap he was pretty out of sorts.  It was hard to tell what he wanted and he was just upset most of the afternoon.  David got home and we got Cooper ready for bed.

Nicki sent us some Tiff's Treats to help get through the weekend of the flu.  Such a thoughtful thing and we ate up the brownies and ice cream!

Cooper was up off and on throughout the night and pretty fussy most of the night.  Saturday morning he was up and ready to play again after breakfast and some medicine. 

His main problem seemed to be pain with swallowing, so he ate lots of popsicles (that I made with Gatorade) and smoothies on Saturday.  Otherwise he was pretty whiny throughout the day and would have some moments of being happy and then others of being pretty sad.  As Saturday went on he seemed to have more and more trouble eating and there was less and less he was interested in.

Sunday we decided to get out of the house for a walk around the neighborhood to get everyone some fresh air.  Cooper insisted on his sunglasses and hat.  He pointed out all the pumpkins he saw and did pretty well on the walk.

Once again, after nap was his hardest time.  I think he was just in a lot of pain.  Sunday is also when we realized that we're pretty sure he also had Hand Foot and Mouth.  He had a blister on his tongue and some others around his body and the pediatrician had mentioned on Friday that HFM was going around.  So the blister on his tongue was really what was making him most miserable because all food and drinks were hurting.  He cried about medicine, about water, about popsicles, etc.  We tried a bunch of different things and he'd eat a few bites but mostly didn't want much of anything.  We did get some additional medicines to help with his mouth sores and they seemed to help a little.

We also spent a good amount of time watching Daniel Tiger to help us all get through the day.  We don't really watch much TV with him, but we listen to some of the Daniel Tiger songs and Cooper loves them.  He loved watching Daniel Tiger!  We watched the episode about being sick and several times throughout the week sang "When you're sick, rest is best, rest is best."

 Sunday night he slept a little better, only needing medicine around 9:00 and then sleeping the rest of the night.  Monday morning he was up fussing a little at 6:30, so I went ahead and gave him some Advil so we would have time to give him another dose before nap.  But once I gave him the medicine was wide awake and ready to play.  I tried to get him to rock a little bit, but he just wanted to tell me "hi" and point to all my body parts.  So I gave in and we got up and got the day started.

We had breakfast and played at home for a while.  Then he asked to go outside.  For some reason being outside has been the one thing that has consistently made him happy throughout the weekend.  So we loaded up the stroller and went on a walk.  When we got home he wanted to go walk around the block, but he only made it about 2 houses before asking to be picked up and then we headed home for snack.  

Where it became evident that even though he seemed to be feeling mostly better, his mouth was still really hurting.  He asked for fruit for his snack.  And he ate most of it, but cried after every bite.  Poor guy.

Lunch was a little better.  I offered some shredded cheese and he went to town on it.  I think it was something he didn't have to chew and that he could put on the side of his mouth that didn't have a blister.  So he kept asking for more.  Also, the only way we could get him to drink water throughout the weekend was offering him my cup, so this one became his cup for the duration of his illness-- whatever works to keep him hydrated!

Thankfully, he took a good nap.  But then he was pretty upset when he got up.  He requested a smoothie and then just wanted to go outside.  So we spent most of the afternoon in the backyard.  He drank his smoothie and explored the porch.  He really was not too interested in eating this day, but he did drink a few smoothies and ate a little at a time.

 Tuesday he woke up pretty happy.  It was the first morning in a few days where he didn't wake up crying which felt like a huge success.  So we held off on Advil that we'd been giving on a pretty set schedule and decided to see how the day went.  Once again, he just wanted to be outside.  So we headed outside after breakfast and spent a while in the backyard. 

Before lunch, I noticed that his fever was back so I gave him a little medicine and then put him down for a nap.  After naptime, we made some Jello.  I wanted something fun and festive for Halloween week and I thought Jello might feel good in his mouth since it's cold and mostly soft.  So I had made the orange Jello and let it cool.  After nap Cooper helped me cut out the shapes with some fall cookie cutter that I have.

He seemed to really like the Jello and was able to eat it without too much complaining.  For the most part he seemed pretty happy this day.  Still some pain with eating, but he was able to eat and drink more than he had been.  It seemed like we were finally on the road to recovery!

And here we are today.  Tomorrow it'll be one week since he first spiked a fever.  He seems to be doing well for the most part, but still has a slight fever if we don't give him medicine.  He finished up his last dose of Tamiflu this morning, so now we're just doing Advil before naptime and before bed to help ease some of the pain for sleeping as well as the "magic mouthwash" a few times a day to help make eating a little better.  He still has a blister on his tongue and will still tell me his mouth hurts, but he's been eating almost everything today.  If we could get this fever to go away we'd be perfect, but for now we're just laying low at home and trying to get back to 100%.

It was a crazy few days, but I'm so thankful for the medicine available for us to give him and for people covering for me at MOPS and ESL so we could stay home and not share our germs.  I'm a little bummed that he's sick for Halloween.  We had planned to try a little trick or treating and a visit to see his cousins, but  we figure it'd be best not to do any of that.  The rain seems like it'll probably put a damper on the evening anyway.  But we're still managing to have some Halloween fun, even if it's just at home--I'll share more about that later.  But there's the tale of Cooper's week of the flu and hand foot and mouth.