Hindsight In 2020 #4: Sick Season

It’s sick season. The weather is constantly changing, noses are running and the flu is rampant in every school. Don’t you love it? I didn’t realize how much kids got sick until I had a couple of my own. Man, they are sick all the time! My son, Charlie, just got over a virus that had him out of school for a week and my daughter, Ruby, started seeping snot from her nose this past weekend. It’s great. And wouldn’t you know it, I even got in on the mix as well. Over the weekend I didn’t feel the best and actually had a temperature one night. Even with all the sickness in our house this past weekend, it doesn’t measure up to the sickness that plagued us the winter of 2017. Yeah, it was bad.

The year was coming to and end, Christmas time was over and we were living with my in-laws. Our house had sold and we were in the process of building a new home. Lisa, my son Charlie, and myself were staying with Lisa’s parents during the transition phase. Ruby had yet to grace us with her presence. Before we celebrated the coming of 2018, I got hit with the worst case of the flu I had ever experienced. High temps, deep coughs and aching all over. That flu season was one of the worst in America’s history! Later I’ll share some stats with you that will make your heart drop.

While the flu was running its course, I began to have trouble breathing. I could barely put sentences together without having to stop and regain my breath. The coughing and inability to breathe got to a point one night where I called my wife and told her I was having trouble breathing. My side was killing me. My body hurt. Lisa actually thought that she killed me one night trying to give me coughing and sleeping medicine. Yeah, it wasn’t good. Finally, I went and visited my family doctor. Literally, my ‘family’ doctor. She’s my cousin on my dad’s side. She took one listen to my lungs and sent me to the hospital for emergency x-rays. Want to know what those x-rays showed? Pneumonia in my left lung. I couldn’t breathe because my lungs couldn’t get enough air! My side hurt because I tore a muscle coughing with such intensity.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is how the flu can kill you. Most people who die of the flu actually don’t die of the ‘flu’. In truth, it is the secondary illnesses that the flu brings on that kills people. Secondary illnesses like pneumonia.

Here’s where the story gets scary. In the midst of all this, Charlie started acting lethargic. He didn’t want to play with his toys. He didn't want to eat. Then, he started to run a temperature. Yep. You guessed it. The flu had got him too. We started loading him up with liquids. We tried to make that boy drink every Gatorade, Pedialyte and ounce of water we could get our hands on. But he just became more and more sick. My son, who was one year old at the time, did not want to run, did not want to play or did not even want to eat his snacks. All he wanted to do was be held.

While holding him a few nights into his flu filled week, I heard a crackling in his lungs as he would breathe. When my wife came home from her twelve hour day at work, we both decided that it would be best if we took him to the emergency room just to make sure our little boy was going to be alright. We were not the only ones at the emergency room that night. Several people looked to be in there for the same reason we were: sick kiddos. After being called back, we were put in a room where we waited to see a doctor. The doctor came in, listened to his breathing and ordered a breathing treatment. About an hour after the treatment the doctor came back in and explained to us that this issue was really not that serious. He told us that as first time parents we needed to understand something. To quote that doctor, “Kids are going to get sick.”

Me in 2020 would not have been so polite to that doctor. I mean, I wouldn’t have hit him or anything. But I would have told him the truth. Essentially, I felt he was saying to us that we were just being overly cautious first time parents and that we needed to get used to our kid being sick. What he didn’t know what that my wife works in the medical field and sees serious issues with adults every single day. However, in that doctors defense, he was an emergency room doctor. Not a pediatrician. Moving on.

We were sent home and told to follow up with our pediatrician the following morning. Our pediatrician provided us with all kinds of medicine to hopefully make our baby boy better. She even asked if he can come into the office that following Monday just so she can put eyes on him and listen to his lungs. That Monday morning I went to work, after missing a week out sick I had to show up, and Lisa took the sick little buddy to the doctor.

Here is where the story takes another turn.

The pediatrician checked his blood oxygen levels to make sure he was getting enough oxygen to his body with his lungs the way they were. The news was not good. His blood oxygen was low and needed to go to the hospital.

The following events happened about as quickly as I can type them out… or so it seemed.

My wife calls. Tells me Charlie is being sent to the hospital.

I go to my boss, ask if I can leave to go meet my wife and son. Tears welling.

“Of course,” he exclaims! I head out. Get in my truck. Peel out the parking lot.

I call my pastor. I call my mom. I call my dad. Ask for prayer from all three. They do.

My boss sends a mass email to my place of work asking for prayer.

I pray. Maybe the most intense, emotional prayer I’ve ever prayed. God please help my son.

I don’t want to lose my little buddy.

When I arrived at the hospital, I ran to the front desk to ask for my son’s room number. I didn’t have to. As I opened my mouth to speak, I heard him cry out. As a parent, you can almost always pick out your own kid’s cry. It’s true. And that cry was his. I ran down the hall to see my buddy getting a pulse oxygen meter hooked to his toe and he was not happy about it. I didn’t mind the cry, I didn’t mind the tears. My buddy was getting the help he needed. How ironic that at this hospital, to these doctors, he needed assistance. Immediate assistance. However, just one night ago, he was just a sick kid to that emergency room doctor and we were overprotective parents.

Long story short, they watched him overnight and sent him home the next day. Little buddy felt a little better. His blood oxygen was on the up and up. He actually destroyed some fried potatoes from the hospital cafeteria the morning before we left. That was a good sign. The staff and doctors at that children’s hospital were exceptional. Not one time did they make us feel petty or overprotective. They treated our son like he was important to them and that meant a lot.

As we were loading Charlie up in the car, Lisa informed me that she didn’t feel the best. She said her stomach was hurting, she felt tired and kind of sick. Oh great. Could it be a third case of the flu?

Charlie slept most of the way back to the in-laws. He was tired. I don’t know if anyone actually can rest in a hospital setting. When we pulled in the yard, Charlie actually wanted to play outside for a minute. It was almost seventy degrees so I obliged. Lisa went in, I assumed to blow chunks because I just knew she had the flu. As Charlie pushed his red Cozy Coupe, Lisa came out to meet us in the yard. There were tears in her eyes. Great, I thought to myself. She had the flu, I just knew it.

Some words you never forget. Her next words will never leave my memory.

She looked at me, tears in her eyes, and said, “I’m a little overwhelmed.”

“Why? What’s wrong,” I questioned.

As her voice cracked, she let it out, “I’m pregnant.”

- - -

What a sick season that was. For my family, that flu season came and went with two cases of the flu and one pregnancy. We were lucky. I got better. Our little boy got better. And my wife and our little girl didn’t get the flu at all. Not everyone in America was so lucky however. The CDC reported that 186 pediatric deaths occured the 2017-18 flu season. That’s terribly sad. And of those children that died, approximately 80% did not receive the flu vaccination that year.

My child could have easily been one of those statistics if he did not receive the proper treatment and care. Please, do your part to keep the flu and sickness from spreading. It’s still sick season! Wash your hands. Use hand sanitizer. Change your toothbrush. Eat an apple for crying out loud! Stay home if you’re sick.

Stay healthy!

Happy Fryeday!

**UPDATE FOR DEVOTED READERS: We cooked asparagus Tuesday night. No squabble.