The Saga of the Sick Family

Today is Day Four of the Intestinal Bug's visit to our house. This morning I called two more of my friends into play... Beverly went to the pharmacy and got some allergy medicine for me. God bless her. Three sick kids and a headache and no sleep...wow that just does NOT go together. She dropped them through the mail slot so as to avoid infection!

Emily, after making it through the night with small sips of water, decided that Momma needed to change her bedsheets so she shared her breakfast water with me on the bed. All over herself and the bed! So, out the laundry room I went after putting her in the shower. I came back in to the screams of Emily -- It's Cold - It's Cold! Of course, in our home you can't run the washer and the shower at the same time and hope to keep both sides happy :)

That was a quick shower, but it worked. I was very concerned for her because she was the only one with a fever and she hadn't eaten or drank since Saturday night. The doc wanted to see her so into play comes the AutoDial Phone.

I knew that sick child #2 didn't need to be driving around town and sick baby #4 didn't need to risk a huge diaper blowout while dragging very sick child #3 to the doc. I also knew that I couldn't call on any of my friends with children to come watch mine, in case of spreading it to their entire family. I would have to endanger someone who was childless (at least currently).

I immediately called Susan DeLosSantos, she's always up for these challenges, but lucky her, she was already gone and at work or somewhere away from her phone. That's when the AutoDial Phone came into play. I started in the 'A's and just started clicking through folks I have on speed dial. Cheryl Andrews, bless her heart, came up first. Her girls are all gone and I know she is home during the day some times. With a silent prayer, I hit DIAL.

She answered the call and was willing. 1/2 hour later I was driving the streets of Fort Worth toward the doctor with Emily holding her bowl in front of her 'just in case'. The doc said this was a big bad bug that was going around. She prescribed a miracle pill that would stop Emily from vomiting every time something hit her stomach.

I love our Pediatrician (Julie Crawford) -- on a call in appointment at 8:30, I was in the office being seen by 9:35 and out of there by 10:00. Back to our side of town to get the meds. CVS had the medicine but it was expired. Walgreen's saved the day with a 10 minute turn around and we were home to take the pill and in 1/2 hour you couldn't stop that child from eating.

This afternoon was nap time for everyone. So the day went much better than expected. Michael was taken to school by Lonnie Burns (yet another friend) and brought home by Patti Kavanaugh (and another friend comes into play). Emily and Charlotte seem to be on the mend and Kathryn is coming out of it. She had the most mild case. She will be returning to school tomorrow.

So things should be getting back to normal (what's that?) tomorrow. Whew, glad for that. Many blessings occurred during these past few challenging days, and I'm conscious of all of them! It's important to acknowledge that without the help of my friends we would have been in a world of hurt.

Praise to God for His help in all this, and thanks to all the people who have prayed for us and helped us. We appreciate you all.

The Fazi Family

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