Lately fatherhood has meant one thing: ILLNESS! This latest round started on Thanksgiving with Nicky breaking out with “Pink Eye”. Right before we sat down for dinner, my brother noticed goop in Nicky’s eye. It quickly become a night of non-stop removal of eye goop. Other than the eye, he was fine. Although we have all been battling a little cold since
Neither of my sons but you get the gross point!
the beginning on November, nothing big broke out at this point.
Friday after Thanksgiving, Nicky wakes up with “Pink Eye” in his other eye! I felt bad for the kid but I couldn’t stop thinking to myself, fatherhood sucks sometimes! The goop was just oozing out consistently and of course it was Daddy’s job to clean it. The doctor called in a prescription for eye drops and I had to put them in every two hours. We got through the day without any major issues. Carrie went off to work and I put the kids in bed. Just a few hours later, Jordan-Rose wakes up crying and saying that her ears hurt….holy shit! What the hell do I do for an ear ache at 10:30 at night? I dug deep into the “Fatherhood when Mommy isn’t Home Manual” and decided to give her Motrin (for the pain) and Benedryl (to knock her out…. for my sake). It worked and within a few minutes she was back to sleep. A trip to the doctor the next day confirmed, a double ear infection with one ear being in bad shape. She was now prescribed an antibiotic and some thick ear drops.
Now we are up to Saturday and everything is going the way it should. We are putting the drops in Nicky’s eyes every two hours and putting the drops in Jordan’s ears every four hours. By mid-day they both seemed to be getting much
I just thought this image was cool!
better and Corey was as good as could be. His cold finally seemed to be on the way out and I was seeing light at the end of the tunnel. Night time comes and we hear some coughing. Carrie and I mute the television only to hear Corey in an uncontrollable coughing fit! She gets him out of bed to give him some medicine and lets him use his puffer. These coughing fits continue through the night until he woke up for good at 3:00 am!
Sunday was pretty uneventful and both Nicky and Jordan were much better. The eye goop seemed to have stopped and Jordan said her ears didn’t hurt. Corey was coughing here and there but nothing like the night before. However since Corey has had a history of lung issues (nothing serious) we were cautious. Corey always seems to get some type of infection that settles in his lungs and he is usually the child on prednisone in our house so we kept our guard up. That night he immediately started coughing when he was sleeping and again he was up at 3:00 am. I woke up with him and we watched cartoons until I got dressed for work and believe me; work was a welcomed break from this germ infested home!
When I came home from work late Monday night (somewhere around 8:00 or so), Carrie tells me that Corey now has “Pink Eye” in both eyes! HOLY FRIGGIN SHIT! Can’t we ever catch a break? Seriously? Fatherhood didn’t seem so bad during the making of these children. It is certainly false advertising and I am filing a protest somewhere. I don’t know where I am filing this protest but sex should not be so good and so well hyped. I think I should go on a speaking tour of high schools across the country just telling the youth of America that children suck sometimes and god punishes you with goopy eyes, hurting ears, coughing kids, runny noses and dirty asses for years and years! I gotta tell ya, that 30 seconds of ecstasy I bestowed upon my wife has it’s drawbacks. And I am not bragging as that 30 seconds is a grand total for all three kids!
Sorry. Now we have “Pink Eye” in the four eyes of two kids, 2 aching ears and coughing. By the end of the night on Monday, Carrie and I are not felling well. FATHERHOOD sucks! I was never sick before I had kids and I mean I couldn’t remember a time when I was sick before kids unless I went back to grammar school or middle school.
Tuesday rolls in and out and everything seems better for the kids but Carrie and I felt like crap. We probably had a touch of the flu because we both had fevers, she had the chills. Wednesday was a much better day for me and I just plowed through my day at work only to return home to a double relapse of “Pink Eye” for Nicky and Corey. Come on folks, you cannot make this stuff up.
Fast-forward to today. The boys eyes are much better, Jordan is back to her stubborn and bossy self but Corey is still coughing a little. Carrie is going to call the doctor tomorrow. We care confident that he will want us to give him prednisone so I am sure Corey will be bouncing off of the walls tomorrow but that will be another story.
If you are the father of multiple children, this is nothing new to you. If you are thinking of being a father or are the father of one child, take my experiences and think before you poke. Fatherhood means many things and most of them are wonderful but for me, the last 1.5 weeks came down to this: “Fatherhood means someone is always sick!”
Yep.
Last year, my daughter’s 2nd grade teacher thought it would be a great idea to take pictures of all the kids in the class wearing a Santa hat. So they got a hat and took turns passing it around and taking pictures.
Only one kid had lice.
So. Just as the break is starting, my daughter gets lice. And it gets passed around. And I have four kids scratching the shit out of their heads as Santa drops down the chimney.
I wouldn’t wish fatherhood on my cruelest enemies!
tysdaddy´s last blog ..Gifts
Thanks for the comment! That SUUUCKS!I am waiting for one of my kids to get lice…I got lucky and never had them but I am sure my kids will. They like to get all of the annoying sicknesses and such.
30 seconds is the grand total? oh man…..I don’t know what to say to that! lol Seriously…sick kids suck, but when you are sick and the kids are sick too…oh THAT has to be the worse. And when you are sick, and the spouse is sick AND the kids are sick….that’s HELL…
Sorry you’re having such a crappy time…this should mean that everyone over there should be well for Christmas, yes??
ezmomm´s last blog ..25 Things…
I hear you. I am not at all enamored with motherhood right now for the same reason. Since September this family has been plagued with chicken pox, never ending coughs, colds, flu and now 5yo is off school with fever and spots in her mouth and throat! When will it end? Like you say, I never remember being sick before I was a parent. I used to expect being well to be the norm. Now I feel there may never be a time when we are all well. And I only have 2 kids. What the heck happens in bigger families?
Thanks for commenting Terry! It does suck but this is what happens when you have kids! Oh the joy!
Thanks for commenting RookieMommy!My wife and I cannot handle our 3 kids now nevermind anything more then that. You have a crazy situation and I feel bad! However I take some pleasure (misery loves company pleasure) in knowing that I am not alone with how I feel. Thanks and GOOD LUCK
Why is it ALWAYS right before a holiday that they get sick??? We were all good from May through mid-November, which is an unheard record for us. We had double ear infection (Tina), bronchitis (Tina & Jessie), upper respiratory infection (me & Chris), a virus with just the mysterious fever (Tina), plain ol’ congestion & cough which is still present(Jessie)and now Chris has hives from who knows what, but at least that’s not contagious! I missed 6 days of work in November just on sicknesses! Plus, the Swine & strep is going around rampant in our town too, so I’m sure someone will get that! Hope you’re all better soon and that you have a healthy Christmas & New Year’s!!
Aw Mike….I am so sorry you’ve got a houseful of ill right now. Pink eye is the worst.
Even if it doesn’t really help, I found that I feel better if I change the pillowcases every night, quarantine all stuffed animals, use antibiotic wipes like crazy, and institute a moratorium on hugging and kissing.
THe no hugging and kissing is hard, but we get around it by seeing who can come up with the silliest replacements – knee bumps, hip checks, back-of-the-head rubs, etc.
Natalie´s last blog ..my blog isn’t nearly racy enough
Well, at least you did not get infested with Lice Bastards! LOL
I hope everybody is completely on the mend. FYI, my doc once told me that Pink Eye and Ear Infections go hand in hand. Tear duct connected to Sinus Pipes and blah, blah, blah.
Hang in there. One day you will wake up and they won’t need you as much (except to comb the nasty rat bastard lice nits out of their hair)and you will feel a bit empty. I know this is weird, but embrace this time when they beg for your love, your healing touch, your wisdom to help them because it is far too fleeting.
LisaB (Wanderlust)´s last blog ..Lessons RE-Learned: Bringing On The Christmas Magic
Damn Michelle! Ok you trumped me! I hope it all gets better soon for everyone. Tell Chris my diagnosis is the hives are from everyone else in the house! LOL….MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
Thanks Natalie! It sucks doesn’t it?!?! I just wave to everyone know!
Well now my youngest was diagnosed with a bronchial spasm so he is back on prednisone! Did I call it or what?
Thanks for the advice! I know that but it is much to fun to bitch about it! hahahaha
I laughed pretty hard about the “parenting when mommy isn’t home” manual. I was beginning to think my wife was the only one who worked outside the home and to top it off for me, he job is as a Neonatal ICU nurse (read: REALLY sick newborns) so my manual is THICK and has notes in the margins.
My biggest fear is head lice now that my daughter is in school but so far we have been lucky. She did have about 6 ear infections back to back though so that was fun. I am a firm believer in ear-tubes now and almost wish my next kid will come home with the pre-installed.
Thanks for the laughs my brother, we can all def. relate.
father blogs´s last blog ..Man, dad and husband – Making Ornaments
Thanks for the comment Father Blogs! My wife only works part-time (very random and rare) but I always get the list of instructions (even though I have 3 kids and have been doing this just as long as her!). I hear ya about the lice! The blogoddess (my buddy) has been telling me the horrors of lice. I am waiting for this house’s turn with that.
My wife runs a dayhome, so we see all sorts of germs go through our house. Once one kid gets it, it is just a matter of time before we all suffer.
Chris | Dads Advice´s last blog ..Advice for Dads: Bonding with Baby
It sucks! I guess it just goes with the territory. All parents deal with it. Thanks for stopping by.