Saturday, December 23, 2006

current events in the Neilson household

So, my husband has been home for a little over 6 weeks, and things have been non-stop chaos. There was the wonderful reunion, the honeymoon period, FANTASTIC sex, blah, blah, blah. The twins have readjusted beautifully, and Robby is actually calling Drew "Daddy" almost exclusively now (it's about time after 3 1/2 years!). And now there's real life.




We are broke. Countless soirees, the Ball, honeymoon purchases, Christmas shopping, and all those damn medical bills (that's another story), (oh, and of course there's that 5 weeks we went without a paycheck) have rendered us nearly penniless.



Kieran has visited the ER twice in the past 2 months. The first time was when he got into Robby's meds and ate an Adderall, making him crack-baby-for-a-day. That was 8 unpleasent hours wasted (and $600). Then, a month later, Robby threw a D-cell battery at his head and split the skin, requiring a 7 hour visit for TWO STITCHES (and $1900)! [Look at the difference between prices for a teaching -vs- private hospital!!!! Thank God for health insurance -- we only owe 20 percent of those bills!]



So then, last Saturday, Devin comes down with the flu. It starts off as a high fever and cough and turns into wheezing and an asthma attack. She was admitted to the children's hospital and stayed for 3 days to be on oxygen (her O2 saturation levels were dipping down to 85 percent) and IV antibiotics (somehow an ear infection popped up among all this!). [oh, and then Drew lost his new job the morning after Devin was admitted.]



So, she came home on Wednesday evening, and then Friday morning, Kieran spikes a 104 fever!!! And a cough, and a headache (he puts his hands over his eyes and says "ow-ow-ow!"). It's the flu. Again. Finally Drew and I realized that we must have it too, albeit milder, cuz since Wednesday, we have both felt like shit with eye headaches..



So now I'm taking every precaution to make sure we don't spend Christams in the hospital with HIM! Humidifier, nebulizer treatments, vapor rub, plenty of rest and fluids... all that jazz. He has asthmatic tendancies, too, so we'll just have to wait and see. But now he has diarrhea and threw up on me while I was putting him to bed. OH WHAT FUN IT IS TO BE BARFED AND SHAT UPON AT CHRISTMASTIME!!!



So, of course, we had to cancel our Holiday party that was supposed to be going on right this second. No sense giving our friends the flu for a present.



It's going to be a lovely Christmas. :(