Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Bleaching the house

Is there anything worse than a sick kid?  I mean the stomach flu sick.  The washing sheets and carpet in the middle of the night sick.  My fourteen year old did not attempt to get to the toilet, just rolled over and barfed on the carpet Sunday night.  The bigger the kid, the more barf they can produce.  Yikes.  I do not resent my kids for getting sick, but after sickness has run through the house, usually the mom is dead tired.  My mother-in-law remembers when all six of her children had the stomach flu, she fell asleep on the washing machine.  

We have all had those moments.  I think I finally have learned how to stop it from spreading, if possible.  After I clean up, I wash my hands up to my elbows like a doctor, then I use hand sanitizer on them in the same fashion.  Let's face it, if momma goes down the whole ship can sink.  Then, before returning to the bliss of my bed, I Lysol everything I can think of, the stair rail, the door knobs, the couch, the remotes, the game station controllers, everything.  Then I use Oust to kill the germs floating about.  In the morning, I repeat this process.  I also rinse and throw into the washing machine any and all towels, sheets, whatever has splash on it, as soon as the child is settled with a bowl and new blanket.  That stuff cannot sit around, no matter how tired you are.  

Even after all of that, I still have a fifty-fifty chance of the other kids getting sick.  A virus is a virus.  I think after four kids, countless bouts of croup, flu, ear infections, I should be able to just call a doctor, tell them what is wrong and get the medicine (which I know by name) prescribed without leaving the house.  Because if your other small children that you have dragged to the doctor's office aren't sick yet, they will get sick from all the sick kids at the doctor's office.  Can I get an Amen on that?

By the time my kids were all in the first grade, I had sent my doctor and his entire family to Spain on vacation.  It didn't seem that long ago that you could get a doctor to come to the house, or maybe that was just in the movies.  They should not tease us like that, unless it can happen to us.  I really have to stop watching old movies.

Well, Ty is back at school and no other kids barfing at this time, but I am not out of the woods for at least four or five days, you never know.  I pray that none of your kids gets sick this season.  No one should have to deal with this, but we do as moms.  

God bless and keep you and yours.  Stay healthy.

1 comment:

Baby Z's Mom said...

Keeping my fingers crossed for you. I agree that we should be able to call the doctor & then just pick up the script at walgreens, etc. At least our ped's office has a well kid waiting room, so if you are there just for well kid or the annual flu shot you are limited to the germ exposure.