When It Rains, It Pours

And that is just what it has been doing here in Central Florida. Thanks to Tropical Storm Debby, I haven't seen the sun in several days, and my mood is starting to feel the effects of it. I swear I could never live in a gloomy city like Seattle. This girl needs her sunshine! I sincerely hope this storm gets moving here pretty soon so the "sunshine state" can be just that again.

The title of this post isn't really about the rain, though. It is about the sickies storm that has been raining on my poor little Bryce for the past few weeks.

It started three weekends ago, on the morning that we were supposed to head out to the lake with our friends. We had planned to get up early to get ready, but Bryce's seal-like barking cough woke me up before my alarm clock could. Brian took him to the pediatrician where he was diagnosed with croup, but with some prednisone on board, we were given permission by the doctor to proceed with our plans for the day. Within just a few hours, the cough was gone.

A few days later, Bryce woke up with a low grade fever, so I kept him home from school. The fever went away a couple hours later, but I could tell he didn't feel good, so my mom came over to take care of him for the rest of the week. We were planning to leave for a mini-vacation at the beach that Friday, and when I noticed him coughing a lot Thursday afternoon, I took him back to the doctor. I didn't want him getting worse on our vacation. He was diagnosed with an ear infection and was given antibiotics.

He ended up only having two doses of the antibiotics because we left the bottle in the car all day while we were at Busch Gardens and the medicine spoiled. He seemed to be better, though, so we didn't bother getting any more.

I got a call last Friday afternoon from school and was told that Bryce had a fever and was saying that his belly hurt. I picked him up and took him straight to the pediatrician to get his ears checked again. His ears were surprisingly clear and the doctor could not see anything wrong with him. She said she had seen a lot of kids that week with undiagnosed fevers, so she said he probably had a virus of some sort and sent us on our way.

The virus must have been in his belly, because he hasn't eaten a full meal since. He has been eating a little bit of breakfast every morning, but then doesn't want to eat for the rest of the day. We are loading him up with probiotics and pushing liquids, and giving him as many BRAT-type foods as we can. My mom kept him home again today, and he did eat a couple pieces of chicken and some plain pasta this evening, so hopefully he is on the mend. The poor kid has probably lost a few pounds.

To top it all off, he woke up Sunday morning with some horrendous looking mosquito bites on his legs. He had been out with my mom Saturday evening, so that may have been when he was attacked, or it could have been one that snuck in on one of the dogs. He doesn't seem to be bothered by them, but his poor little legs look awful!

My kids have not been sick in a while, so this has been exceptionally rough on us the past few weeks. Here's hoping that my little man is on the mend, and that the sun starts shining again!

Tuesday morning update: Bryce seemed like he was feeling better this morning. He asked for yogurt and orange juice when he got up, and then went to school. Ten minutes after I dropped him off, my phone rang. He threw up. My poor baby! My mom is still in town, so he will spend the day with her. Oh, and we still have no sun.