a plague on both our houses

All of the babies are still sick. Matt and Ambers kids have it too so somehow we all got it together...I can't think of where...All of the babies have been sick since last Tuesday and Konrad since last Sunday. We are definitely changing doctors offices...at least I got that out of all of this. In the past week we have has 4 doctor visits and 2 ER visits, I mean really? Konrad started it with his string of 102-103 temps and then he got a runny nose and a cough and then Michael got hoarse, with runny nose and cough and fevers of 103 as well and then finally Zach succumbed to it with the worst case of all...probably because he didn't really get the high fevers so his body wasn't fighting as well as the other two were. We took them all to the doctors for the 3rd time on Friday and he poo poo'd me. I asked for a steroid for Zachary or albuterol, I was so worried the night before when he couldn't catch his breathe but the doctor refused. I asked three times, no crap, three times and I wasn't meak about it and he said no, he has an ear infection, his lungs sound clear...now perhaps it is the doctors age or I don't know what, but I could hear the wheeze from across the room. Of course, we did kjust come inside from out of the cold and IF the boys had croup or something like that the cold would have opened up their airway and made it better for the examination, but no no, doctor knows best and mommy, the pediatric nurse who knows what a kid in trouble looks and sounds like is just a laymen and couldn't know better than the old school doctor so of course it is just an ear infection and of course he will be fine...he even gave me his "just a cold" lecture as he called it and here is some amoxicillin for that ear infection, he will be just fine...pompous old wind bag...so we get home and Zachary has a bad evening and they all have a bad even coughing and snotting and crying from their painful coughs. My parents were there to help us because all of those sick babies were just a bit over the top and Mike and I had been dealing with sick babies for 6 days already with no end in sight. And that night sure enough, Zachary cannot breath again. So my mom and I spend 2 hours in the steamy bathroom trying to help him breath and trying to avoid the ER because it is snowing and of course I have somewhere to be in the next 3 hours at 8 am for the first time in months, I have a BLS class for my new job that I have to go to. Finally I say I have to go but call me if it gets worse. Thank God the class goes fast and I get home to Zachary working hard to breathe and everyone kond of hands him to me like, do you want your mommy...and mommy takes one listen and then decides that we are going to urgent care. And urgent care takes one listen and decides that we are going to ER. and ER takes one listen and decides that he needs, steroids (uhuh) and an epinephrine breathing treatment. After he got his steroids and treatments, screaming and crying and freaking out from the side effects all the while, he finally fell asleep after a few hours and he did improve...so they send us home with a nebulizer for albuterol treatments and send us on our way. That night went fine, my parents and sister Georgia and brother Kurt and his wife Kelly were all there with food and reinforcement energy to help that evening and my parents and Georgia had to spend the night due to the highways being closed form the snow storm. We had an okay night but Zach woke up in trouble with his breathing again the next morning. And I watched and waited and made sure that I wasn't over reacting...we made him lay low, no walker now crawling because everytime he does anything at all he cannot catch his breath. Tom and Debbie were over and spent the afternoon baby wrangling with us, but little Mike was in rare form and needed lots of attention and Konrad was, well Konrad, and we were all watching Zachary pretty closely. And finally at 11pm last night, I got worried again because Zachary just could not catch his breath again, so back to the ER. adn He got another treatment of epinephrine and they sent us home again. Last night, I spent the ENTIRE night holding Zachary in my arms so that he could sleep. He had a very bad night and was so very wheezy and kept coughing and he just would not let me put him down, he got absolutely hysterical when I relaxed my arms or tried to lay him next to me, even propped on a pillow or in his carseat, he just demanded to be held all night or he screamed and screamed...so I did. So now I am tired, sore, with three coughing cranky still sick babies and I don't really see enough improvement to feel like there is an end in sight and all of my reinforcements have been tapped out and well....shit...a plague on both our houses...may the curse be lifted soon...