The Land of Gross

This time of year is absolutely horrible for our town right now; the germs are making their way around offices, playgroups and homes. People have been out sick for weeks and not from just one virus or infection, but many. One after the other. It's nasty!

A few weeks ago we had a head cold make the rounds in our home. I got over it just before photographer friend's baby shower (thank God). Things were pretty good for a little bit, but then Logan started coughing something fierce. We thought it was allergies because he was breaking out with eczema in places that he had never been itchy before. It made sense too with all of the warmer spring-like weather, the trees starting to bud and all of that business. But, his cough lasted for a while and what do you know. Now I have it. I think I have an upper respiratory infection because it burns to breath (but not that bad that I feel like I need to see a Doctor). I hope this is just another bad cold or something like that.

All of our friends have been sick with something or another. The flu, colds, rotavirus, RSV and the adenoid virus (I've never even heard of this one before until now). We've been lucky in our house that nothing serious has hit us and most of all, Carter has been pretty healthy (just a little runny nose, but nothing bad). All of these infections are really making me think though, because Carter is 6 months old today and ready to go to the gym daycare. Germ central.

After Carter's Raynaud's disease visit, I was pretty adamant that he wouldn't be getting vaccinated since he has an autoimmune disorder and that (in addition to our vaccine history) increases the chances that he'll have an adverse reaction to something. On the other hand, I know that if Carter goes to gym daycare for a few hours while I workout, he's bound to get something. A while back they evacuated and closed down the daycare because one of the kids showed up with a staph infection (a really common infection in gyms anyway). I'm really starting to get a bit worried because of the infections that have already been spreading. This is one REALLY bad year. And to top it off, I saw a news story about how the flu in our state is particularly bad (4 kids have died making it the worst season in 5 years).

It's hard to separate the propaganda from the reality and make informed decisions right now. Add the fact that we have a germy preschooler who plays in the dirt, picks his nose and other activities that make his hands disgusting (and we wash hands often). He also LOVES to hold Carter's hands and get him his face, despite me telling him not to. I think he hears differently and does it more rather than less.

I have a bit of thinking to do over here...