DEFCON 1

Alert Homeland Security. Our perimeter has been breached. Hayley has become the not so proud recipient of influenza. We had a normal day on Thursday with the routine afternoon nap. But when she woke up at her usual time she was burning up with a 103 degree fever. After a bit of Tylenol and a cool bath, her temp came back down and we had a relatively normal dinner. I thought perhaps she's just battling a virus and off to bed she went like usual. Until about 9pm when we heard her coughing and ran to her room to find her and her bed covered in... why didn't anybody tell me that kids throw up??!!! (Oh goodie, looks like I've earned the coveted vomit badge to add to my Mommy Vest.) Brian assumed the role of combat medic and I took over as combat surgeon. We made the decision to MEDEVAC Hayley to the tub. Hayley refused to let go of Pooh who was severely injured in the blast. Froggy was in bad shape as well, but apparently Hayley doesn't follow that "no man left behind" motto. Once we cleaned up Hayley's battle wounds we were better able to assess her condition and see the full extent of her injuries. Once again, her fever was back up to 104 and we were seriously considering MEDEVACing Hayley to the ER. I have to admit, we've known there would be war, but we probably haven't trained properly and certainly had never experienced this type of warfare before. Dare I say we were a bit unprepared and may have PANICKED??!! We opted for our next line of defense, the on-call Pediatrician who gave us some advice on getting Hayley's fever down and telling us when an ER visit would truly be appropriate. It took about 2 hours, but we finally lowered her temp to the point that she was comfortable and able to get some rest. She battled the fever all night as we monitored our patient with frequent temperature checks and Tylenol doses. Friday morning I packed Hayley up and we headed down to the Dr. for a nasal swab that confirmed that Hayley had indeed contracted the flu.

We know a few people who have battled this strain of flu this year and from what the Dr. told us to expect, we really were expecting a very unpleasant week. So far though, Hayley has shocked us as her fever has been absent since last night, she shows no other symptoms besides maybe the hint of a runny nose, and has been running around the house all day long like nothing ever happened. I've been spending the past two days armed with Lysol trying to decontaminate the house and praying that Brian's and my immune system can fight off the threat. I've even contemplated bathing in Emergen-C, because quite frankly, being 34 weeks pregnant with the flu is not something that I have any desire to experience. So I'm going to call this battle a draw. Obviously I lost the battle because somehow Hayley ended up with the flu. But, because of her strong immune system, which I'm choosing to believe that good nutrition and sleep played a part in, she successfully fought off the foreign invader.

And yes, I keep score of these battles. I HATE being sick and therefore I HATE germs. It's a personal mission of mine to keep my family and myself healthy so a germ invasion resulting in illness is like a personal failure to me. Now that we have one walking petri dish and another on the way, I'm going to have to step up my germ warfare readiness even further. I thereby declare that this household will remain at DEFCON 3 for the foreseeable future.

Oh, and because I know you're probably concerned, thanks to my "expert" surgical/laundromat skills, both Pooh and Froggy were awarded a Purple Heart for their brave sacrifice. They have made a full recovery and have returned to Sergeant Hayley's platoon.