Being sick, viruses and all those things..

In all honesty, I don't remember getting sick (often) as a child.  My visits to the doctor were very few almost non-existent (to my current memory).  I've never been confined in my life (except when I gave birth) and so I considered myself, very lucky in that aspect.  But there were times that I have certain memories of - they were mostly non-traumatic.  I remember going to this pedia in Manila who concocts his own medicine that tastes so good!  I remember drinking cough and colds medicine also.

But nowadays, since I became a mom - it seems as if viruses have now mutated into something stronger.  I hear terms such as viral (which I must admit, I still don't fully understand what it means), bacterial and etc.  Now, temperatures of 38 (degrees celcius) are the norm for fever, having 39 and 40 are alarming, but I learned that the thermometers we use (and have nowadays) have a +/- range.

I honestly miss those mercury thermometers.  The ones that I have now are an underarm thermometer, an ear thermometers and a no contact infra red thermometer - but guess what, they have DIFFERENT READINGS!  I don't understand it.  It makes me more confused, I don't have one thermometer that can give me an accurate reading - I must need to *average* it out just to be sure.  I make sure to try all of the thermometers that I have with me!  So you can just imagine the process.

Last December during the holidays, we were all hit with colds and cough.  I honestly didn't feel much of the holidays because we were mostly sick, even Yaya B got sick.  Shobe was the most kawawa out of everyone because she couldn't blow her nose by herself.  We had to suction out the sipon from her tiny little nose.  We had to do this often and it resulted with sugat on her outer nostrils.  Her voice was already paos from her screaming and crying.  It wasn't a fun time - it really wasn't.  The older kids naman, well - they're quite stubborn with blowing their noses.  I had to remind them every so often.  Instead of blowing it out - they sniff and snort it back in!  I couldn't count how many times I've lost my patience and yelled at them.  I was also sick, my head was aching - I experienced chills, body pains and etc., but I need to function despite feeling all those things.  It was really hard for me - I couldn't rest properly because I still needed to breastfeed and pump.  Yaya B was nice enough to take over caring for Shobe at night.  I felt so helpless - I just wanted to lie down and close my eyes and rest.  But of course that didn't happen right?  As I said, I needed to function - add the holiday stress with a helper that needed to be reminded every so often.

For the past week, I have been feeling it again - apparently, there's a virus going around that is quite - scary.  So for the record, I am sick - AGAIN.  So are my kids, except Shobe.  It seemed just like a week or two ago that my kids were well.  No one was coughing, no one had colds - it was a fairly peaceful time.  I know because I allowed them to have ice cream!  But guess what - they're sick AGAIN! We can't seem to avoid the viruses!  It's really really REALLY frustrating.  Connor had a fever when he got home from school - then after giving Tempra, he felt better and his temperature was back to normal.  But the next day - well, the next night - his temperature shot up to 39!  It was really alarming, I swear it was almost midnight and there he was - sleeping, but his temperature was off the charts (for me)  We monitored his temperature after that and put an ice pack on his head.  What the hell was happening, right?  OMG!  The next day, his temperature was lower, but it was still considered a low grade fever.  Our pedia advised to keep him home until his temperature becomes 37.3 and below for a period of 24 hours.  Mind you, despite having a low grade fever, he was still his old self - playful and eating naman, it's just that his temperature was higher than normal.  Strange, right?

I have been giving my kids all sort of vitamins already, and they have been taking them every day - just like me with Immunpro.  To be honest, well - since we're sick again - I can't seem to understand the effect of them.  Maybe we should try being vitamins-less for a while and see how that goes?  It's already quite often, because when I think about it - it's like every month, we catch something.  I swear, it's frustrating me already.

I received a couple of messages regarding pneumonia and some other virus going around.  I don't know if there's any truth to it, but I think we really need to be cautious.  So guys, avoid crowded places in the mean time.  It's better to be safe than sorry, right?

One part of me says - exposing them/our bodies to these kinds of things will make us stronger.  On the other hand, I am not sure if this is the right way?  How about you, what is your opinion on this?  What do you think?