Strepocalypse 2012.

Gage missed SEVERAL days of school last year for strep.
If this germ blows down our street, it always lands on our doorstep.
Someone with strep can LOOK at Gage, and somehow he will get it.

This past Thursday, on the day of party after party, while Daddy was out of town on a business trip and this mama was flying solo, in a matter of hours, Gage went from happy-go-lucky-playing-kid, to THIS:

About 30 minutes after the photo was taken, Gage woke up, crying, begging me to "help" him swallow. He just kept pleading with me to "help" him. OMG, break my heart. Something wasn't right. This wasn't just fever, viral whatever.... We hit the road to urgent care and called Daddy.

How pitiful is this?

...awaiting his strep & flu tests.
Strep positive, flu negative.

Got our scripts and headed to CVS.
"I'm sorry, did you just say the wait is TWO HOURS?"
Crap.
Walgreen's is right across the street...
"We'll have this in 15-20 minutes."
....or an hour.
What really sucks? Sitting in the teeny little waiting area of Walgreen's pharmacy waiting trying to console your crying child who is begging for medicine. {"Hello! HE'S BEGGING FOR MEDICINE! GIVE MY SON THE MEDICINE!" I wanted to pull some Terms of Endearment sh*t up there, but I refrained...}

...after that, he wanted Sonic.
Go figure.
So, we get Sonic.
I, being a big, fat, non-thinking idiot, convince my son to take the antibiotic right there in my car. "The sooner we take it, the sooner it will start working." Never mind the "It will hurt if I swallow" complaint that kept him from eating all afternoon and evening.... Antibiotic on an empty stomach? WTF was I thinking!?!? (Not to mention that some kids get an upset tummy with strep....)

Luckily for me---we made it home before the vomiting started.
Unlucky for me: I didn't put Ranger (the dog) in his kennel before I left. For whatever reason, he threw up twice on the living room floor and I got to come home to that and then deal with a vomiting child too.

But----Daddy made it home from his business trip just in time to deal with vomiting with me. No lie---the kid couldn't keep down his medicine, or crackers, or water, or pretty much anything he tried. FINALLY, he kept down some pedialyte after two children's pepto. It was a loooong night.

Late that night....

....but, by the next morning:

Pale, and literally down 3.4 pounds from the day before----but hey, he's smiling and said that he felt better!

Here at the Casa de Lainey-Paney: WE HATE STREP!