Friday, January 20, 2012

Two Sick Chickens

It's 7:30pm and the boys are all in bed. All of them, JJ included. No one put up a fight. Everyone's bodies are exhausted from fighting off the viral infection that has been attacking their upper airways and beyond for the last five days.

CROUP. The boys have the terrible condition that makes them cough their lungs out, lose their appetites, spike fevers and sleep very little through the night-time hours. It's only a matter of time before the chorus of coughs and cries will begin again here. But for this short moment there is silence. Silence enough to think my own thoughts, to type them into this Blog.

What bothers me more than the lack of sleep I am getting and the drain two sick children are on a person, is how sad and scared I get in the middle of the night when Daniel can't catch his breath; when he coughs so hard he throws up the only small bits of nourishment he has received all day; that the doctor says, that's how it goes and to wait it out.

My poor little chickens.


Daniel passes out on the floor this afternoon mid-popsicle, exhausted from much-broken sleep the night before.

2 comments:

mndrix said...

That's no fun at all. Experiencing things like this always makes me so grateful for immunizations. It's too bad they don't have one for croup yet.

JJ Hendricks said...

@mndrix - We have heard a lot about immunization levels going down because parents decide they are not worth it for the risks.

I think it is a big observation problem for people who make that decision. They don't see or hear about kids getting polio or mumps or measles because everyone gets an immunization. But they do hear the rare stories of immunization side effects. So they assume the immunizations are bad but they are much, much better than the alternative of potentially getting those diseases.