New Years and our household flu epidemic

A sick boy wishing he could go out and play in the newly fallen snow.

Here I am sitting on a birth / yoga ball slowly bouncing a sick sleeping baby in her carrier while attempting to attend to this sty of a house.  It is a cruel reminder of the early months (or first 9 months) of mommy-hood and the self sacrifice it takes. I have spent the last five days doing nothing but caring for two sick kids and one sick husband, all of whom came down with the flu.  I remain healthy due to my steel-strength immune system that I credit to teaching preschool.

Our first flu victim was Miles, who last week began acting lethargic. I didn't think much of it until the following two days when he began running a fever around 103 degrees and slept all day. Now, I am aware that fevers are not a big deal and that the body does in fact benefit from them, so that being said, we decided to take him to the pediatrician because he stopped drinking and keeping fluids down.

Anyway, after a quick trip to the doc Miles was prescribed Tamiflu for treatment (which knocked out the H1N1 that he got last year in less then 24 hours) and so thus began our most current issue with his Medicaid.

...Digressive background: Miles came to us from foster care and we finalized our adoption in April of 2010 and as part of the adoption agreement Miles is provided with federally-funded, state-administered  healthcare (thank you Mark, for the exact terminology). A well received blessing as those of you self-employed families know how expensive health insurance is!

New Years 2009. Just three short days after Miles came to us as our foster son.

...and now back on topic. Once we received the prescription we called around and found a Rite Aid that had the liquid Tamiflu in store (a lot easier said then done) then my wonderful husband took even more time off work to go get the prescription filled.

An hour and a half later I got a call from him.  

He informed me that Miles' insurance was denying prescription coverage.  Argh! Miles' case does not go under review for another sixteen months so there is no way the change could be legitimate and since we have not yet gotten in contact with Medicaid (holiday weekend) we are hoping to get this straightened out very soon.  But my sweet talking husband did well and the wonderful lady at the Rite Aid pharmacy took pity on us and gave us the hundred dollar medicine for free.  What a kind lady she is.

So this brings us to the night of New Years Eve: Miles is sick, Cora's temp is rising and Mark is starting to cough. 

Wonderful. 

Miles passed out on the 'Papa chair'

     

Despite the massive amount of germs being either coughed or sneezed out the celebration commenced. Mark and I were determined to make it up till midnight, unlike last year. I had braved the icy (or not-so-icy) roads to procure a tasty bottle of Prosecco and had pictured us staying up till midnight, waking Miles at his request, then toasting the new year as we while watching the ball fall. In reality it all came true - except that we watched the 'live from NY' version at 10.00.  Miles, although excited to have actually been awoken for the ball drop, was in a very poor state and could barely keep his eyes open, Cora's fever jumped to 103.4' and Mark chased his Prosecco with Nyquil.  We were all in bed by 11.00pm. So much for still being young and hip.

Me and Cora with her first box juice

Mark and Nar celebrating another year survived

Mark and Cora

Mark and Miles. Yes he is awake.

Miles trying to be excited with his apple juice

 Despite it all it was a great night.  We survived and are now fairing far better. I just hope that this night is not a foretelling of the upcoming year.

Happy New Years Everyone!