Christmas 2011

This year Christmas was NOT what we planned. Starting on Friday (the 23rd) Lukas was diagnosed with RSV. This wasn't really a shock to us because he gets it every year, but the timing was awful (although better now than in February). Saturday (the 24th) due to Lukas and Corina both having fevers, we had to miss out on seeing my extended family at my grandmother's house. Lukas also developed an ear infection on Saturday, so we had to get medicine through the on-call doctor since even the after hours doctors were closed. Sunday (the 25th) we had our family Christmas in the morning, and Mimi and Papa came over that evening for Christmas dinner. That night we noticed that Corina's right ear drum had likely ruptured. Monday (the 26th) we had Christmas with Mema, Grandad, Aunt Ashley, and Uncle Ryan. Between opening presents in the morning and dinner that evening, we took Corina to the Acute Kids (the after hours pediatric doctor). They confirmed that her ear drum had ruptured and she had a double ear infection (fourth one in three months) and likely the beginnings of RSV. Tuesday (the 27th) Lukas' breathing got gradually worse until that night he started coughing with every inhalation, and complained that he couldn't breathe. Scared us badly, a lot because he looked so scared. He went off to the ER, but was thankfully fine by the time he arrived (after treatments at home and in the car). The ER doctor was less than helpful, and Eric (who took him) left very frustrated. Wednesday (the 28th) we took everyone to the doctor to be checked for various things. At that point Lukas had turned the corner, and was starting to get better. Corina was still at the beginning of her round of RSV, so was expected to get worse before better. Thursday (the 29th) Corina ran a fairly high fever all day until it finally maxed out at 104. That was her worst night, and she started getting better (RSV-wise) the next day. By Saturday (the 30th) it was clear that Corina's ears were not feeling better, so we went back to Acute Kids to check it out and get new antibiotics. Monday (the 2nd) was Corina's appointment with the ENT. He recommended that she get tubes (which we expected), and so that surgery is scheduled for January 27th. Through this whole mess Eric and I were also not feeling fantastic since we likely had the same RSV virus from the kids. Thankfully as of Tuesday (the 3rd) everyone is mostly better (I'm still working on it), and went back to normal routines.

Even with two kids with fevers, two kids with RSV, two kids with ear infections, and two parents also under the weather, we had a nice Christmas. Some pictures from all of our celebrations. While Lukas doesn't look horribly excited in most of these (due to being the sickest at that time), he really was.