1 Mother 2 Another

Maddie spiked a high fever late Thursday
night. A trip to the doctor the next morning ruled out strep throat
or the flu, and left us with one of those ambiguous viruses. A
couple rough nights and lots of Elmo videos followed.


Forty-eight hours later, Maddie felt much better, and we kept a
close eye on Cora, who seemed to have skipped the newest bug for
once. Then Sunday night Cora started running a fever, and we spent
the entire night sleepless: she’d wake every twenty minutes
crying, finally falling in an exhausted slumber around 4 a.m. I
steeled myself for the forty-eight hour thing and promised
I’d sleep when they get to high school.


But wait – there’s more.

I’ve been fighting a cold for over a
week now, and woke up Monday morning with a significantly worse
throat. A morning at the doctor verified that, yes, indeed,
I’ve got strep throat, though where I got it is a mystery;
perhaps I picked it up when I took Maddie to the doctor on Friday.
At any rate, Cora continued to run her fever and when she
complained at dinner that her throat hurt, I followed a hunch and
took her to the after-hours clinic.


And yep, Cora’s got strep.


So now we’ve got to watch Maddie for a week, hoping she
doesn’t start running a fever again. I’ve missed work,
and Cora’s missed naps from pain and restlessness. And I keep
wondering, How long, O Lord? We’ve been under this
cloud-o-germs since October, with the healthy days few and far
between. Maddie’s finally healthy and instead of celebrating
with her at her Chuck E. Cheese panty party yesterday, I was
sitting slumped in a waiting room with a fractious toddler.
Cora’s not eating or sleeping, and developed a snotty nose
over the course of the day, so she’s probably got a cold on
top of the strep, which of course is probably not the same one
I’ve been carrying around for over a week, which means
we’ll pass this one around the family for another month.


Seriously, how much longer? I can barely remember what my friends
look like.