How low can one child's immune system go?

Miss L is ill again.  I think her immune system had taken a complete battering this Autumn.  Since August she has had a two viruses, tonsillitis, a cold and now something else seems to be trying to take hold.  Her temperature is 39.  Illness always seems to strike a Monday, my study day when she is supposed to go to pre school.  I have an assignment due on Thursday so I am now panicking.  Why I am blogging I don't know, probably because I am actually getting quite worried about her.  It's just been one thing after the next. 

It has all become muddled too, she has definitely been tired and her energy levels aren't what they normally are.  So it feels like an uphill struggle all the time to get her doing stuff again.  I never quite know if she is genuinely tired or just trying to pull a fast one.  She admitted she had been pretending to be ill to get out of going to a swimming lesson.  'Just pretending Mummy ha ha.'  She loves being at home with me, especially as it means she gets my full attention while Mr G is at nursery.  This game playing is whole new territory for me.

You can't fake a temperature though (not at four years old anyway).  So today she stayed at home, and I tried to get my assignment done.  I struck a good balance between keeping a close eye on her, whilst making being at home as boring as possible.  At lunchtime her temperature got to 40, a place we have somehow managed to avoid for her four years and two months.  I got a bit scared, but calpol fixed it.  As I put her to bed she was muttering about wanting to go up in a hot air balloon and then bawling that Daddy had been in one (this was over a year ago) and not let her go in.  Very random.  But she had no temperature at this point (thank goodness for calpol) and she made complete sense after that (thank god - was starting to think she was delirious)

I am just hoping this means she will have a blinding immune system in the future.  Would love some perspective from more experienced parents.  My lovely dad reckons I take her to the doctors tomorrow, just to make myself feel better about it all. 

Poorly Sick

I am climbing the walls. It has been a three week relay race of sickness. One child gets off the sofa and the other takes to it. Apart from at weekends, when they seem absolutely fine. So we took them camping, packed in loads of adventures and then they crashed and burned on Tuesday. After three weeks of this pattern it now feels like a conspiracy to stop me from leaving the house in the week.

I realised today how utterly dysfunctional we are when one of us is out of action. Me and the healthy child, today it was Mr G, followed each other round the house aimlessly, like caged tigers. My OH calls G 'Am Dram', as in Amateur Dramatics'. Generally he has a lovely temperament, but when he blows a fuse it is always a performance. I lost track of how many Oscars he went for yesterday.

Miss L, who has finally succumbed to tonsillitis after a three week fight, lay on the sofa glued to the Disney Channel and wailed every time we crossed the path of the telly. The house is strewn with half eaten sandwiches, discarded beakers and toys that have failed to hold their attention for more than a millisecond. I have lost all interest in maintaining order, the washing has stacked up precariously above the dishwasher.

There is a real art to looking after poorly children. Hmmm. I don't think its a skill that comes naturally to me. I always try to think back to what my mum did in that situation. So I changed the sheets for L thinking back to how lovely it was to climb into clean sheets after a day of feeling grubby on the sofa. I tried to give her a spoonful of her antibiotics and she spat it out all over the clean pillowcase. Then she threw up over the duvet.

So now there are two sets of bedding to wash.

Happy Days. I am hoping the antibiotics kick in tomorrow.