RSV

That's right ladies and gents; my sweet kiddos have RSV. Respiratory Syncytial Virus. Basically, they cough, have runny noses, and run fevers. In other words, they have a bad chest cold. And it's worse in children under 1. And the cough can stick around for up to 4 weeks. 4 weeks! Now I wouldn't mind if my children coughed for four weeks. I mean, it would be bad. But the congestion in the chest/throat. That is just BAD. Gross. Bad. Horrible. Nasty. Any disgusting adjective you can think of....that's what it is. Thankfully, we didn't have any throwing up today. I called the doctor first thing this morning when Cayman woke up and was just acting plain weird. His face was flushed, he was still coughing, and I knew Charis would probably be no better than she'd been the night before. I was right. So off to the doctor we went! We were in the patient's room, Charis coughed one good time, and from down the hall, I heard the doctor say, "That sounds like RSV." Anytime I've ever heard anything about RSV, I've always associated hospitals, dangerous, and possibly death with those initials. So I tried hard to stay calm while the doctor was explaining what she thought. But she eased my fears and let me know that Charis didn't have a bad case of it. She did say that Charis has an ear infection, so she prescribed amoxicillin (which we picked up for free at the Publix pharmacy...part of their free prescriptions deal...) We do need to keep an eye on her to make sure things don't get worse. But the doctor thinks she's over the worst of it since she's not running fevers anymore. Ian and I could also tell this evening that she seems to be feeling much better. Of course she still has the nasty cough. But she's back to her cheerful self. In fact, I'm posting a video on Facebook tonight of her acting silly with Ian. She has started being a little more playful with all three of us in the past couple of weeks.

Cayman also has RSV. But he doesn't have it nearly as bad as Charis. Older kids and adults don't experience the symptoms the same way as children under the age of 1. The doctor said he most likely will start running a fever in the next couple of days. He definitely was extremely cranky this evening and went to bed about 40 minutes early because he was very ready for bed!

[caption id="attachment_1694" align="aligncenter" width="224" caption="This is what happens when you let the kids play while you rush to get ready in the morning!"][/caption]

On a different note... Since returning back home from Augusta, I was shocked to step off the plane (the airport is so small that you walk down an open ramp onto the runway) and immediately smell the salt in the air! After living in Florida for so long, I guess we've just gotten used to it. But it was a bit nostalgic to me - smelling that beachy, salty air. It took me back to our first week in Port Charlotte. I have very fond memories of our time in Florida, especially from those first few weeks down here. It was such a bonding time in our life - getting used to being a family of four, living in a completely new area, seeing palm trees and alligators and white sandy beaches -- it was so new. So refreshing. So fun! I told Ian last night that I'm going to miss it here. (We most likely will be leaving in April...they will be putting an operator in the store around then...or so we've been told...and it won't be Ian, so we'll be heading somewhere else!) I have decided that I wouldn't want to live here because of the distance from our families. But this part of Florida has a lot to offer a young family. The weather is fantastic, the scenery - gorgeous, and the people - friendly. So I will miss it.