School year brings many surprises
Published 9:34 am Friday, August 30, 2019
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Like most parents, I was eagerly awaiting the start of the school year so my children could go back and see their friends and get their energy out by the time I got home from work.
Packing them off to begin a new year of classes, I settled into my new life with the kids off at school thinking I had plenty time before the turn of the seasons came and I had to worry too much about sickness and days my children needed to take off. Even though we now have family out here with us, juggling doctor appointments and sick children was not something I was ready to face, and I went along this last week totally thinking I had weeks, months before our first hit from a cold at home. Oh boy was I wrong.
Just one week into the school year and my middle child, Sophia, came home with a sore throat. Chumming it up to allergies, I waited for a day before taking her to the doctors. Although, right now we have someone in our family undergoing chemotherapy and I did not want to wait too long because of the threat she could cause if say it was more than your typically runny nose from pollen.
Strep test complete, I breathed a sigh of relief that I was right and took her home. We enjoyed time with family before our family members next round with chemo this week, and I thought for sure she would be better by Monday. Although, when her symptoms still had not improved I ended up back at the doctors this week and to our surprise, the next strep test was positive.
Elated that we would now get her much needed antibiotics and she would soon be able to eat, having only consumed yogurt and popsicles the last several days, I was also a little irate that the first test came back negative and we possibly exposed someone we love very dearly to a horrible virus when they could not afford to get sick. Not only that, but a plethora of a string of sore throats went through our house after the news of the positive results making me nervous more of the family had caught it. Several doctor visits later and we breathed a sigh of relief when we were all told we were in the clear. It is funny how much like when you see a group of ants and begin to feel them crawling on your skin, when someone gets sick all of a sudden you start having symptoms too.
Crisis now taken care of, it made me stop and think that we are only one week into this school year and my house was already hit from all the germs that hide in the school hallways and classrooms. Going to the store, I made sure and doubled up on my purchases of multi-vitamins and vitamin c. With a little extra healthy boost we will be able to avoid anything else that is thrown our way this season. Hopefully, your home has not been hit too this early in the year and we can all cross our fingers as we try and side step our way through the flu season ahead.
Brittany Fuller is the community editor of The Jessamine Journal and Jessamine Life magazine. She can be reached at brittany.fuller@jessaminejournal.com.