QUARANTINE!

Oh what? That up there? It's nothing. All I'm saying is....will someone just take me out back and shoot me? I'm just sayin.

Max was scheduled for his 6 month well check THIS Friday. And as history has proven, that means he couldn't possibly make it. He couldn't make it because he is too busy having contagious diseases, as he is wont to do.

He's had a wet, loose cough for about a week, but no fever, no other issues, etc. But, the last 2 days I was noticing that when he was asleep he was struggling to breathe. He was having really short, rapid breaths, and this was concerning me. I took him to Dixies last night for a breathing treatment, which didn't seem to do anything. His lungs sounded like he was breathing through mud. And on top of this, his goopy eye had become profusely so throughout the day and had now spread to the other eye, which could only mean one thing right?.........PINK EYE! Clearly I could not put off his visit until Friday.

I called the doctor at 8:00 this morning, no answer. Called again at 8:10, was on hold until 8:17. I KNEW they'd tell me they had an 8:5o available, I KNEW IT. Sure enough, after explaining the sitch, they said to come on down at 8:50. Mind you, it's 8:17, Maggis is STILL in bed, Max is in his pj's and now the race is on. Impressively, I got Maggie out of bed, diaper changed, dressed and hair done, Max dressed, in his seat and all of us out the door by 8:30. THEN, as I was flying down the freeway, complaining to Lana on the phone about my sickly children, I blew right past my exit. UGH! So, took the next exit and made it to the doctor with ONE minute to spare.

So, trusty Dr. Deardorff came in, gave Maggie a looksy, checking to see if her ear infection was gone. You'll be "surprised" to know that it was NOT. SO, another round of antibiotics coming right up. THEN he looked Max over....not pretty. Max's ears were STILL infected (after 2 rounds of antibiotics already), he does have pink eye, AND a respitory infection, meaning breathing treatments every 3 hours. I tried to hold myself together, 'cause hey, what's another 100+ bucks in Dr. visits and medicine? SERIOUSLY! But the best was yet to come. The conversation went a little like this:

Dr. Deardorff (or DD): Are they around a lot of children?

Me: Well, yeah, I guess.

DD: Who?

Me: Their cousins.

DD: I want you to keep them home, away from other children. I don't want you to take them to the store, out in public, no church, nothing. Just stay in your house.

Me: Really?

DD: They just keep getting the same cold over and over again. We need to see if we can keep them away from others and REALLY knock this out. Because if we don't, your next option is tubes. (Max has apparently had one ongoing ear infection since about 2 1/2 months).

Me: (Internal whimpers and crys) Ok.

Seriously? SERIOUSLY? What the H man? It's not that we have such a glamorous play group kind of life. We pretty much stay home most of the time as it is. We make our weekly forays out to Costco, Fry's and an occassional Target run. Then there are some very random stops at Lanas or Danas, with hangouts at Dixies. Really, we're not out in public that much. So, he wants me to truly never leave this tiny little box where we're tripping all over eachother and losing our minds. I'm not s'posed to EVER get out with them? Along with me losing my mind, THEY will positively lose their crap. I am SO not ok with this. I'll do it, 'cause I occassionally like to follow a command or two, but I won't be happy about it. AND, I'm VERY interested to see if we can actually get my kids better. Truth is, I simply can't handle paying out another round of EIGHTY dollars for antibiotics, and I'm not interested in either of my children having tubes put in their ears if we can help it.

I s'pose if I had to find a silver lining, a bright side, if you will, it would be that God gave me fabulous children that don't cry, or act sick. At least Max isn't screaming, whimpering, or crying all the time with his apparent sickly ears. Nope, he just smiles, giggles, plays and coos. He's pretty much perfection, and it humbles me. And really, Maggie, an ear infection? You wouldn't know it, 'cause she sure doesn't act like it. So, there's that, I guess.

What this means: Melissa, I'm suuuuuuuper sorry, guess we won't be coming over on Friday to spread our filth. Perhaps next Friday, if your girls haven't contracted some disease by then, haha.

Adults are welcome to come visit us, but guess no dirty little children beasts, carrying vile bugs of destruction.

Don't mind us, we'll just be here in Hell, I mean quarantine.

Ear aches and empty cupboards,

Allyson