the double wammy

Fargo  + Scott being gone = the double wammy.

Kiley + allergies + the double wammy = meeting our deductible before February 1st and starting a pharmacy in our kitchen.

Our trip to Fargo this weekend was sort of a bust. I should have known. Every time Scott is out of town it seems one of the kids gets sick. Every time we go to Fargo, it seems Kiley gets a rash (thus our recent discovery!). Add them both together and it is a recipe for disaster.

We ended up in the ER on Sunday morning- in Fargo it seems that everyone just goes to the ER. Urgent cares seem rather non-existent there. Lucky for us it was a Sunday morning and everyone was waiting for church to get out before heading over, so it was pretty quiet. Oddly enough when we were leaving (about the time church is getting out), it was rather busy.

The doctor ordered a chest x-ray after hearing some wheezing in Kiley's chest... when I heard her say pneumonia and spot on her lung, I thought I might cry. Thank goodness my mom was there with me, keeping me calm, not freaking out or anything (100.4 temperature? Oh my god! Isn't that really high??$@! Brenna!@!@).

Real calm.

Well, if nothing else, Jaxon was such a great big brother. He was telling Kiley it would be okay... stealing her books, pushing her off the bench, typical loving big brother stuff.



They sent us home after treating her with antibiotics and a nebulizer and I spent the next four hours listening for her breathing while driving home to Minneapolis, by myself, on virtually no sleep. It was a true joyride. I won't bore you with the details.

So, I enjoyed the past couple days feeling like a stay at home mom, hopping between two sick kids, cleaning up the puke of one and taking the temp of the other.

Oh yeah. Jaxon started getting sick too.

I got Kiley in for a check up today and with continued wheezing in her lungs, the doc looked at me and I thought she was going to cry for me. She basically warned me that this may or may not be bacterial pneumonia. It could be a viral pneumonia, in which case it won't get better for a couple weeks. Or, it could be caused by RSV, which is running rampant this winter. Or, it could have been an asthma reaction triggered by her dog allergies.

And then she sent us home with a shopping bag from the pharmacy.

Nebulizer. Check. Albuterol. Check. Steroid treatment. Check. Antibiotics. Check. Tired, crabby kids. Check. Slightly anxious, wonder if I'll ever go back to work (do I have to?), hope my kids get better soon mom. Check.

Lucky for us, one nebulizer treats both kids. And we didn't even have to pay for Jaxon's visit to the doc.

Looks like we'll be staying in hotels when we visit Fargo, at least until we can figure out what's going on with little miss. I do think I saw a nice new Holiday Inn next to the ER. Perhaps we can get a frequent visitor card...