Sickness, Sickness, Sickness

So this will be a depressing post but just thought I'd document how this past month and a half has been so that I can appreciate more fully when we are all healthy so here we go.

• Dec 20th-Clark has the stomach flu
• Night of Dec 21st-Linnea wakes up and throws up with the stomach flu
• (Dec 22nd-Dec24th)-TC's entire family comes in to stay with us for Christmas
• Dec 24th-TC, his brother, James, and I have the stomach flu
• Dec 25th-Dec 27th-Stomach flu goes through almost all of TC's family
• Dec 29th-I wake up feeling a cold coming on and Savanna and I have pink eye.
• Dec 31st-Savanna complains her ear hurts, take her in and she has an ear infection
• Jan 1st-TC feels he has a cold coming on, Savanna wakes up with the stomach flu.
• Jan 4th-11th, go to Disney Land. TC and I both had bad colds the whole time. I get a sinus infection Linnea, Clark, and TC also got pink eye while we were there and Savanna got it again.
• Jan 12th-I feel recovered. TC feels worse. Goes to the doctor and they say he just has a cold and to keep doing what he's been doing
• Jan 13th-TC comes home from work with a 102 fever. He goes to the doctor again and they diagnose him with bacterial bronchitis. They put him on an antibiotic.
• Jan 15th-TC's fever gets up to 104. He goes back to the doctor. They tell him he needs to finish up the antibiotic before doing anything else and to come back Sunday if he still has a fever.
• Jan 19th-TC still has a fever though it's improved. His cough is significantly worse though and is coughing a lot and coughing up phlem. Goes back to the doctor. They do a chest xray and he has fluid in his lungs but it has not turned into pneumonia yet. They change his antibiotic.
• Jan 20th-TC's fever breaks and starts to feel much better. He goes back to work. Now he only has a residual cough.
• Jan 23rd-Linnea wakes up with a low grade fever that goes up in the afternoon. I take her in and they say it's an ear infection and give her amoxcylin. Friday and Saturday her fever gets over 103. Take her back in. They prescribe another antibotic. She was very fussy this whole time. Her fever breaks Sunday night but the next week she is still somewhat fussy and sleeping more. (In retrospect I think she also had walking pneumonia. Read on to understand.)
• Jan 30th-Clark has a low grade fever and cough in the afternoon. I take him in and they say he has an ear infection. They prescribe amoyxclin. 
• Feb 1st- Clark still has a low grade temperature so I take him back in and they switch his antibiotic.
• Feb 2nd-Savanna wakes up with an episode of croup. Take her in for a steroid. Later Linnea sounds a bit croupy and take her in and they give her steroid as well. They are both doing well now.
• Feb 3rd- Clark's temp gets over 104. Take him in and he's diagnosed with mycoplasma pneumonia. Give him two shots and switch his prescription.

And that's where we are now. I didn't include TC's extended family sicknesses which include: pneumonia (his parents were recovering from pneumonia when they came to our house and TC's sister, Kristin, got pneumonia in November when she was pregnant and was hospitalized for it), bronchitis, ear infections, sinus infections, stomach flu, etc. The doctor last night said that we initially picked this up at Christmas when we were all swapping a lot of germs while TC's family was staying with us. It has been a very difficult month and a half. It was very difficult for me to see my family sick and to keep having to go back to the doctor and try new things. Those of you that know me know that I am a worrier and I hate fevers. Heavenly Father has given me strength during this time though. My kids do get colds and the stomach flu occasionally but this is our first experience with pneumonia. Savanna and Clark also haven't had ear infections in years. Though interestingly it says with mycoplasma pneumonia you often can get an ear infection. We have never had so much sickness in such a short period of time. Clark seems to be doing better today and hoping for some good health to return and hoping we can stay healthy for awhile! We were going to have Linnea's birthday party this weekend but we are rescheduling it to the 22nd. Life is tough sometimes but I know there are many that have it worse than me. But I'll be honest this has been very a tough time for our family. It gives me a greater appreciation for parents who deal with more serious illnesses or chronic problems. You all are my heroes!