H1N1!! Oh No!!

Speaking of the dr from the last post! I figured this warranted it's very own post. Unfortunately, Riley caught H1N1 this week! OMG! I don't wish that on ANYONE! So much for having a Nanny to keep him away from all the germs at daycare! We think he caught it from her son that stayed home sick from school on Monday, but really we'll never know. Doesn't really matter at the end of the day. He still got it!

It all started Tuesday night, I had a change request for work that ended at 1:28am, so just as I put my head on the pillow - Riley starts literally screaming BLOODY MURDER at 1:33am. Seriously, it was the WORST cry/scream I have EVER heard from him! He pretty much kept us BOTH up until 6am that night. He was congested, but didn't have fever or anything so I thought it was more back molars breaking through. When we woke up the next morning (Wednesday), he was still congested, but didn't have fever and ate all his breakfast so he wasn't really "acting sick" either. I told Emily to watch him and let me know if anything changed, and I'd come home. She text'd me that he seemed better at lunch and no fever so he went down for his nap.

When he woke up from his nap, she noticed he was hot so she took his temp and it was 101.5. She called me, and I immediately called the dr. They said to bring him in so we were literally at the dr within an hour of him starting to run a fever. Everything looked fine - his throat and ears were clear. But his nose was running constantly, and the dr said his eyes just didn't look right. I agreed - Emily met me at the dr and when her car door opened I was like - OMG! He's a sick little baby! So the dr says, we can administer a flu test, but since he just started to run a fever there's a chance it won't show in the test yet. At this point, I'm thinking she means the "regular" flu test. I said, let's go ahead and take it since we're here. Worst case, we have to come back tomorrow if he's worse.

She comes back in the room 15 minutes later with a MASK ON! She was like I guess you know the results of the test. At this point, I'm still thinking regular flu. She went on to say don't be alarmed - she wears the mask because she's exposed to it SO much. Then she went on to say don't believe the media hype. She's treated over 450 cases on H1N1, and none of them have gone to the hospital. I was like, HUH? He has H1N1?! She said yes, that's what we tested him for. I have to admit a little fear did wash over me at this point. Skipping from thinking he's having teething congestion to H1N1 was a little bit of a leap for me!! She prescribed Tamiflu and said to give him Tylenol to treat his fever and symptoms. She also said to prepare myself because the worst was yet to come, and just to try to keep him comfortable. She said his fever could get as high as 104, and he would "pant" when his fever got that high, but to only call them back if he "panted" for more than an hour or so.

I told her my sister's baby shower was this weekend, and she's going to have a scheduled c-section next week...and she just shook her head no. She said - you can't go around your sister for at least 7 days until you see if you're going to get it or not. And the best thing you can do, is wash your hands frequently but if you're going to get it - you're going to get it. Same thing for Kelly.

I called Kelly and said - what would be the worst case scenario be right now- even he couldn't guess it was H1N1! We totally didn't see this one coming!! By the time we got home from picking up his prescription, he was full fledge SICK! He wouldn't even crawl around. He just wanted to be held, and he would even make these groaning noises like he was in pain. It is SOOOOOOOOOO hard to see your baby that sick! Needless to say, it was another all nighter for the Sterne household. And even though Riley is a Daddy's boy a lot of the time, he's a Mamma's boy when he's sick. He would go ballistic if I handed him to Kelly to hold long enough so I could wash my hands or go to the restroom. And we figured out he has a weird reaction to Tylenol - it's like baby red bull! OMG! It was making him so hyper, but you could tell he was also exhausted! I finally staggered Motrin with the Tylenol - and that made a HUGE difference! He broke out in a full body sweat after the Motrin - his fever broke and he passed out in my arms.

But before that, you'd be holding him. And he would cringe when you touched him, like it hurt but then all he wanted to do was be held, so it was the constant state of back and forth where he was in pain, but just wanted you to hold him. He'd sit up in my lap facing me and look at me, then let a cry out and just drop his head into my chest. OMG! It was one of the hardest nights EVER! I finally got him into his bed - we had elevated one end of it to help with his congestion and I think he slept for 2 hours so Kelly and I slept for like an hour. Then we were up for round 2. Kelly held him until he was able to fall asleep this time, and he was like you were right! That was the hardest thing EVER! You're trying to hold him, he's hurting and tired and... It's just AWFUL!

I think he slept for maybe 2.5 hours this time, then we were up for the day. He was a little better Thursday, but his nose was running NONSTOP! And I was wiping it NONSTOP! But he actually crawled around a little and played some. You could tell he wasn't himself though.

The next night was some of the same, but he slept in longer spurts. When he woke up Friday, I felt SOOOO bad! His poor little nose had scabs on it where I had wiped it so much the day before!! :( And I was using Kleenex with Lotion!! Thank goodness! We took him back to the dr Friday morning. You could tell he was almost back to his normal self when he woke up that morning though. He was crawling around and jabbering non-stop.

When we got to the dr, he had no fever and his oxygen level was 97%. The dr couldn't believe how good he was doing! She said - he's been on my worry list since I saw him Wednesday, but he's officially off of it now! That REALLY scared me b/c I can't imagine how we would have survived if he'd stayed that sick for much longer! Oh yeah - that's the other thing that sucked! We couldn't have Gigi come help us b/c she couldn't be exposed to him then risk taking it back to my sister, etc.

Friday afternoon, he was pretty much back to normal outside of the still continuous running nose! And he's back to sleeping through the night as of Friday too! Which was just in time for me to have to stay up until 1am for another change request for work! So I still didn't get to sleep early that night either! He's gotten better with each passing day...it's Sunday now and he still has a runny nose, but for the most part he's back to his normal self! Thank Goodness!! Like I said in the beginning, I don't wish this on anyone!!

I have to admit that before I had a kid, I'd see kids with runny noses and think "Ew gross!". But when it's your own kid - you don't care! I did wash my hands so much, they were red and chapped and cracked and bleeding like I had OCD. But that was mainly b/c I didn't want to catch it and not be able to take care of Riley! And you don't care if there's a chance of catching H1N1, not even that risk can keep you from kissing your own child!!! Especially when all he wants is kisses because he doesn't feel good! So far so good on Kelly and I not catching it! Keeping our fingers crossed! Because Amy is having her baby on Thursday, and that will be day 8! So as long as I don't get sick between now and then, I'll be able to go! I still can't believe I had to miss my own sister's shower though! That was REALLY hard!!

And I do believe Riley was able to bounce back so quickly b/c he was so healthy to begin with, and we feed him mostly organic foods and not a lot of processed junk. Since Kelly and I started eating like that - we hardly ever get sick too. And when we do, we bounce back pretty quickly too. In fact, we all had fresh orange juice from the Jack LaLanne Power Juicer last Sunday because I had one of my 40 hour work days last Friday thru Saturday, and we were trying to avoid getting ill b/c my immune system was worn down from being up for 2 days. So I shouldn't claim victory until we make it through the 7 day incubation period, but none of this HURT our chances for sure!!! And I firmly believe it helped Riley not be as ill as some kids his age from this nasty H1N1. I refuse to call it Swine Flu b/c that just sounds GROSS! Yuck!