The Flu!

Poor little Allison got the flu this week. We haven't experienced the flu with Allison before, so this was very exciting. We're so used to her Asthma and her having colds/coughs, that we know exactly how to handle it when she gets that kind of sick. But the flu - that's an entirely different story.

Tuesday I get a call from Allison's babysitter - she started throwing up and my brother came to get her (I have an AWESOME family - thank you Brian). When I got home from work, she was asleep and I didn't want to wake her, so I ran home to do a few errands. When I can back, she had already thrown up a couple more times and then while I was there she threw up again - nasty! Basically all that evening she couldn't keep anything down so I called the Consulting Nurse. She said that if a kid can't keep even liquids down, you shouldn't wait very long before taking them in - she said we could try giving her Pedialyte by the spoonful every 5 minutes or so and see how it goes. She also gave us some things to watch for - signs that we should take her in immediately. Well, she couldn't even keep the Pedialyte down, but she had gone potty, so we figured she was okay. By 2 in the morning, she was so dehydrated that her tears had dried up so I took her to the ER. They were able to give her some medicine to stop her throwing up - and she got a popcicle (which she thought was pretty cool). They said that if the medicine didn't work, they'd have to give her an IV - thank goodness it worked! They sent us home and she slept until morning.

Wednesday I stayed home with her and she ran a high fever all day. Thursday, the fever finally broke, but she still wouldn't eat or drink anything (I had to force her to drink to keep some liquids in her). So, I stayed home with her again today, just to give her another day to recover and she seems to be doing much better. She ate pancakes for breakfast and has been drinking again. Whew! It has been quite the experience - hopefully we don't have to deal with the flu too often!