House Full of Sick Boys

Benjamin came downstairs Sunday night at about 1 a.m. He was crying and burning up with fever. By Monday morning he was coughing with a dry, barking sound. So, I decided to take him to the doctor yesterday. The doctor did a throat culture and he was negative for Strep, thankfully. Then they pricked his finger to draw a little blood. As the nurse was collecting the blood in the vial she realized that the blood was clotting and stopping up the tube. So she had to grab another vial. The same thing happened with the second tube. She went and got another nurse to come in and the nurse quickly filled up a third vial of blood. She took it down the hall to the lab, but returned a few minutes later and said that the blood clotted in the vial before they were able to run the test. Aparently, Benjamin is not a hemophiliac.

All of this came from his thumb that was now clad with a cotton ball and band-aid. The lab nurse came in with yet another vial and said she would have to prick another finger to draw his blood. By this time Benjamin had fallen asleep in my arms and the poor child was awakened with a prick to his finger. Ouch. He was so good though. He didn't even really cry. He fussed a little and then was quiet. The nurse told me that she was going to literally run right out of the room and get it to the lab so I had to just hold the gauze on his finger until the other nurse came in with the band-aids. That time they were able to test it to find out that his white blood cell count was normal. Ugh. All that for nothing. Well, not for nothing I guess because we were able to rule out a bacterial infection. I just felt badly for the little guy.

I was thankful for his disposition though. So, we left with a feverish child with a viral bug that would just have to pass. By last night Nathan was not feeling well and by this afternoon Seth and Joel joined the sick ranks.

Hopefully this bug will pass quickly. It seems to just be a fever and a cough. Last night, Benjamin felt well enough to play and I snapped this cute picture of him.