Journey to and Through Motherhood: Lily's 34th Week (10/19/09

This was not a healthy week. Kirsten's son, Nate, stayed home ill on Monday but I had Kirsten watch Lily anyway as we figured he was just still recovering from strep which he had just finished his antibiotic treatment for. Then Kirsten's daughter, Keegan, came home sick on Tuesday and both kids were running a fever so Kirsten took both of her kids to the doctor that afternoon and just tried to keep them separated from Lily. Since Kirsten had her hands full with two sick kids, my mom came over on Tuesday night and watched Lily on Wednesday. Both of Kirsten's kids felt much better on Wednesday and spent the entire day fever-free without Tylenol so Lily went back to her house on Thursday and her kids went back to school. My mom stayed at our house to clean and my dad came over to do various tasks for us. We are always so grateful for their help.

Meanwhile, I woke up with a sore throat on Thursday morning and felt increasingly sicker as the day progressed. I kept checking my temperature at work and didn't have a fever but by the end of the work day, I had body aches and chills so I knew that I was definitely coming down with something. When we were picking Lily up from Kirsten's, she got a phone call telling her that both her kids had tested positive for the swine flu! They had been swabbed to test for it when they went to the doctor on Tuesday but neither Kirsten nor I thought they had it since they weren't very sick and recovered quickly. She felt horrible that Lily had been exposed to it but there was no way that we could have known. When we got home, my mom had made dinner for everyone. It was wonderful but I felt even worse so I took my temperature again and found that I did have a fever. My dad went home after dinner but my mom ended up staying the night again to watch Lily on Friday since, according to the doctor, Kirsten's kids were still contagious. I could barely sleep that night because I felt so horrible with chills and body aches. I took my temperature a few times and it was around 101 each time so, needless to say, I did not go to work on Friday. When the alarm went off on Friday morning, I felt like I had been beaten by a tire iron and was pretty convinced that I had the swine flu. I called the doctor's office as soon as they opened. Apparently they aren't testing for H1N1 and aren't even having people come in if they have symptoms to try to keep it from spreading but they did have me come in because I was a high risk patient due to my asthma. They confirmed my suspicions and diagnosed me with swine flu based on my symptoms and exposure to confirmed cases (Kirsten's kids). I wasn't very worried about how it would affect me even though I had heard some horror stories about inpatients at the hospital with it but I was terrified about Lily getting it. How could I keep her from getting it when she nurses from me and always has to be held by me? My doctor talked with a pediatrician to clarify how I should handle Lily and I called and talked to my pediatrician's nurse to confirm what I was told. They said that I did not need to keep isolated from Lily and that I should definitely keep nursing her to give her my immunity. I tried to keep away from her the best I could on Friday but when I am around, she wants to be with me, not anyone else. My mom did a great job keeping her distracted and I was so thankful for her help. My fever persisted all day and I felt like crap with body aches, chills, and a sore throat. We were planning on going up north to Paul's parents house to spend the weekend with them and Paul's sister, Debbie, and her kids but didn't want to infect them so we stayed home. We were bummed because we haven't seen them since August.

By Saturday, I was fever-free but I still had some body aches and a sore throat. Paul tried to help with Lily but then kept going outside to work on projects so I pretty much took care of her all by myself. It was a good thing that I was feeling much better. I got a follow-up call from Lily's pediatrician's office to check on how she and I were doing. I thought that was very nice. To my dismay, though, the nurse that I talked to told me that I should be wearing a mask around Lily at all times. The one I talked to on Friday said that it wasn't necessary. I put on a surgical mask as soon as I got off the phone even though I figured that it was too little too late. It wasn't very effective, though, because Lily hated having part of my face blocked so she kept ripping it off of me every time I held her. I tried to continue with the mask on Sunday but gave up by the afternoon. I was feeling 100% better with no symptoms other than a slightly sore throat. I am very thankful that I had such a mild version of the swine flu and am so glad that no one else in the family appears to be getting sick. It was a beautiful day out so Paul spent the day working in the yard and Rachel played with the neighbors. I figured I was no longer contagious as I had been fever free and cough free for over 24 hours so Lily and I ventured outside to enjoy the warm weather. I took some pictures of her with the fall colors. Sunday was also our 6th wedding anniversary. Paul completely forgot which made me feel very loved. :(

I won't be able to return to work on Monday due to the hospital's strict flu policy. To prevent spreading the illness to coworkers and patients, I have to be off for seven days or 24 hours fever-free, whichever is longer. That means that I can't return to work until next Friday even though I feel fine and have been fever-free for 48 hours. I can return to work sooner if I go get a flu swab from Employee Health to make sure that the virus is out of my system but even that takes 24 hours to yield results. I think I will do that as I really don't want to waste my vacation/sick days sitting around twiddling my thumbs all week.

Here are some pictures from this week.

Lily viciously chewing on her rubber ducky on Monday: