surviving the swine flu

Well, in my last blog, I mentioned that I hadn't been feeling well. Little did I know that what I thought was just a bad cold was really the dangerous H1N1 virus. We've been so careful to not expose Ash to many germs, especially with this deadly flu going around. But on Saturday night, we had some friends over, and while everyone seemed fine, on Sunday morning, their little boy came down with the flu. By Wednesday, their other little boy had it and they both tested positive for H1N1.

I first had a fever on Monday night and was pretty miserable all day Tuesday and Wednesday. I even had to call Greg to have him come home from work early, because my body was feverish and aching so badly that it hurt to pick up Ash's pacifier. Ash seemed to be doing okay and only a little sniffly...until early Thursday morning.

Ash was awake for his 4:00 a.m. feeding and changing, and I could tell he wasn't himself. He had a little fever, so I gave him infant Tylenol and brought him to the couch to sleep with me. He was extra squirmy and grunting and just couldn't seem to get comfortable. He did sleep for a couple hours, but by the time he woke up around 7:30, he was obviously burning up--he had a fever of 100.5. I knew right then that he had the swine flu, so I called his doctor as soon as they opened up, and we had him there by 10:15.

The doctor did a swab test (which really got him screaming) and took some blood, and confirmed that Ash did have the flu. He was so sad to watch--all day long, from the doctor's office to the entire time at home, he was asleep, but whimpering and groaning non-stop. Greg ran out and got him Tamiflu, and we stayed at home the rest of the day.

Thursday evening was one of the worst nights of my life. Ash was in such obvious pain--so much so that if we moved him at all, he'd scream and cry. Here are a couple pictures from that night:

So sad, isn't it? Oh, it was horrible to see him in pain and feeling so miserable. Thankfully, he slept through the night, only waking up once to eat. We took him to the doctor again on Friday morning, and he was pleased with how he seemed to be doing--blood count looked good, no fever, and everything else checking out healthy. We were surprised we didn't have to bring him to the hospital, but we are so thankful we could keep him at home and bring him back to health.

He slept well again on Friday night and all Saturday morning, and then he woke up on Saturday afternoon, wide eyed and alert. It was like he was finally feeling better, and wanted to see what he had missed the past few days! Ahhh, it was wonderful to have our happy and smiling baby back again.

Speaking of our beautiful boy, he's asleep on my lap right now. My laptop battery is about to die, but I don't want to move to wake him up, so I should get going. I'll post more pictures again sometime soon.

Thank you to all of you for your prayers for Ash during that scary flu! We are SO thankful that he is healthy, and we give God ALL of the glory for his recovery!