Abigayle

Just when I thought that all of us were pretty much back to normal, our Princess Abigayle is sick again. Her symptoms include a low temperature, VERY stuffy and runny nose, bad cough and sleepiness. Even though her temp is only 99.3 degrees, I felt like I just had to call the hospital. I just don't think that we should ever take any chances with our children's health especially with H1N1 at everyone's front door.

I gave the list of symptoms to the RN on duty. I wanted to pass her advice on to all of you in case you face the same thing. She told me that what I described is raging like wildfire through our neck of the woods. I told her that we have been giving the girls and us Mussinex with cough formula (it also has an expectorant to get rid of the chest congestion), Tylenol, ibuprofen and Robitussin if necessary. She told me that that is exactly what they are recommending patients to do UNLESS the temp gets up to like 103-104 degrees and nothing, no Tylenol, no ibuprofen, no lukewarm bath will bring it down. At that point, you need to get to the hospital so that additional medical treatment can be done.

In the meantime, encourage alot of bedrest and plenty of fluids to help wash the junk out and to keep bodies well-hydrated.

We learned that we were all but out of the Tylenol and ibuprofen for little kids such as Abigayle. Stan went straight to Dollar General to pick up both only to find that EVERY LAST BOTTLE of children's fever medications is GONE except for Tylenol Meltaways. This is very scary for local parents! To my knowledge, this is the first time that they have ever been out of these medicines. They normally keep a plentiful supply on hand so this should tell us how many people are sick here right now. So...it may not be such a bad idea to stock up on all over-the-counter drugs for fever control for the people in your home.

VLE-B