Tag Archives: cold

why does she always get sick on the weekend?

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Oh hey, know what’s funny? You know how in that previous post I very casually mentioned in the first paragraph that Catie had a stuffy nose that woke her up? And then I quickly moved on, without even noticing that gigantic anvil labeled “FORESHADOWING” hanging over my head?

Yeah. So the past 36 hours or so have been a blast, let me tell you.

It wouldn’t be so bad if it was just a cold. Kids get colds all the time. But colds for Catie mean asthma flare-ups, and trying to take care of a kid who’s lying on the floor crying because she can’t freaking breathe? That is a level of stress that I don’t wish on anybody. Thankfully, we’ve stayed out of the hospital this time, but there was a brief moment last night when we debated on whether or not we were going to take her to the ER.

I was up with her a good portion of Friday night, and since I was exhausted, Dave took over last night to let me sleep. The poor guy was so worried about Catie that rather than sleeping in between her wake-ups, he just stayed up all night. He finally went to bed when I got up, around 9 this morning. Poor guy.

As for Catie, she seems a little better today. She’s still pretty raspy and wheezing a little, but she’s also eating some Cheerios and drinking watered-down juice. And she’s actually talking rather than wailing and crying, so that’s definitely an improvement.

Really, this is all the more reason that we’re getting our flu shots this year. I know that the H1N1 vaccine is a little controversial, but seriously, if a simple cold can make my kid so sick that she almost ends up in the hospital, there is no way that we’re going to eff around with the possibility of her getting H1N1. Her pediatrician’s office doesn’t have the vaccine yet (apparently only local health departments have it now, a lot of private practices don’t), but I’ll be taking her in for an appointment as soon as they have it.

Now let’s just hope that this is the worst of it.

of course, the perk of having a cold is that I can't smell the litter box

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When I got home from Chicago on Sunday, Dave was running late to pick me up at the airport. I got my bags and met him outside baggage claim. I gave him a big hug & kiss, and climbed into the backseat to sit with Catie for the ride home. I noticed that her voice seemed a little raspy, but didn’t think much of it. When we got home, she wanted me to carry into the house, which I was happy to do after not seeing her for 3 days. That’s when I noticed she was (very mildly) wheezing. Dave admitted that she’d come down with a cold over the weekend, but he didn’t tell me because he didn’t want me to freak out and fly home early. What can I say, the man knows me well.

(In my defense, a normal kid’s cold is not something to freak out about, and I know that. But for Catie, colds usually lead to asthma attacks, and after landing in the ER twice, I tend to be a little panicky. So there’s that.)

And really, her cold didn’t seem too bad. We had to give her albuterol a few times, but she seems mostly better now. Yesterday when we were playing, she threw her head back and laughed, and I noticed that her top two eye teeth (the “fangs”) are just barely poking through her gums. I figured, oh well, that’s what it is, then. It’s not a cold at all, she’s just congested because she’s teething again. No worries.

Then I woke up today and realized that she definitely did have a cold. And I know because I now have it too. Sore throat, runny nose, the whole nine. Now I’m just hoping that my cold passes as quickly as Catie’s did. Because I really don’t need to be sick right now.

In moving news, I spoke with our landlady about whether or not she’ll let us stay here for the month of August, since our closing date on our house has been bumped. Have I mentioned how horrible our landlady is? Oh yes, I have. First, she started in on me that a couple of people have complained about “a very strong cat odor” in the house. Well, yes, we have two cats. I try to keep the litter boxes scooped, especially when we have a house showing, but what can I do? Sometimes you still catch a whiff of them. I can’t believe her rudeness in trying to essentially blame me for the fact that the house hasn’t been rented yet. She even issued a mild threat by saying, “Well, if they’ve had accidents on the carpet, I don’t know what I’m going to tell the owners…” Um, well, you don’t have to tell them anything, because they haven’t had accidents on the carpet. (Admittedly, Teenie has had a couple of accidents on the hardwood floors, which I’ve cleaned immediately. So no worries there.) I reassured her that the cat odor will be gone as soon as we move out, then tried to ask again about whether or not we can stay. She’s impossible to pin down with a definite yes or no answer, so finally I just said, “Ok, how about if I bring you a check for the month of August, and then you can pro-rate a refund based on the day we move out?” She seemed satisfied with that.

So yeah. Apparently we won’t have to move twice. I guess. (I hope?) Oy. Such a pain. Now to figure out when we’re getting our money and can close on the new house. Good times.