Sick Kids

We're busy here at home with various illnesses. It started out a couple weeks ago with a child here or there getting a flu thing....headache, aches all over, cough and slight temp. Some kids got better fast and were done, others got better and then got sicker a few days later. Our friend Mr. Strep has again visited our home. Five kids are on antibiotics. In the past after a few tested positive the whole family was put on antibiotics. Our new pediatrician doesn’t want to do this. We'll see if he (and I) regret this decision. I was willing to try treating Mr. Strep without us all doing the meds. I think everyone was just more conservative in the past when Jonathan was still here. We had to keep the whole family as healthy as possible in order to protect him from any virus. The sickest now are Josiah and Tamar Myhao. Tamar's strep actually manifested as scarlet fever. Praise the Lord for antibiotics. Both seem a bit better after 48 hours on meds. It has been a week of little sleep with 5 of the little kids running temps and miserable. Mike took over a few hours yesterday morning while I slept. Because of illness we had to reschedule Maggie's appointments in Spokane on Friday with her neurosurgeon and CAT scan for her VP shunt check. At least we got another appointment day within a few weeks. I am really concerned that all the kids are not healthy enough to go to Seattle on Tuesday morning. Our plan it to take the seven youngest kids with us for Maggie and Solomon's clinic appointments at Children's Hospital on Tuesday and Wednesday. It takes months and months to get rescheduled and Maggie REALLY needs to see her people. Please pray that she and the others are healthy enough to travel. Maggie's been on antibiotics for 10 days now but she and Solomon still have a cough. I hate to take sick kids into Children's Hospital and expose other kids. We have a hotel room for Mike to stay with kids while I do the appointments if it turns out we can still go. I just pray that it works out for at least Maggie to see her doctors. We desperately need help addressing her feeding issues and to look at her med levels. Maggie has three appointments and Solomon has four.

*****Just added to post: I posted this early this morning before Maggie was up. She since got up with 102 temp and her cough is much worse. I imagine it will be an ER visit today and chest xray. Guess my prayers for what to do about Seattle were answered even before anyone read the above post. There is NO way that we can taken the kids for their appointments now.
*****updated at 4:00 PM. Maggie does have pneumonia but we are home from ER with super duper stronger antibiotics. Another week ahead hunkered down at home recovering.