Mastitis and Upper Respiratory Infections

Yeah...you can tell right off the bat that this blog is going to be gross. Sorry.

So, Sunday afternoon/early evening, I started running a low grade fever, accompanied by chills. Uh oh...I thought I was getting the flu. I started taking ibuprofen to control the fever, and it helped make me feel better and get rid of the chills as well. It continued on into the next day, and I kept waiting to feel worse...much worse. But, I didn't really. So, what did I do? I googled "postpartum fever and chills" and it brought up some links about people really freaking out about having fever and chills during the post-partum period, but I did not get caught up in the hysteria. I just kept scrolling on down - and then I saw a little blip of 'breast soreness, fever and chills'...and I was like "Hey...now that you mention it, my left breast IS pretty sore"...so I clicked, and read on. The article led me to symptoms for Mastitis, which is pretty common for breastfeeding mamas like myself...and can cause flu-like symptoms...but needs to be treated with antibiotics pretty much ASAP, otherwise you can develop a nasty abscess. (ew...ewwwww). So, I got myself into the doctor yesterday and got started on my antibiotics. In a way, kinda glad it was mastitis and not the flu...the flu usually hangs on for awhile, and not really needing that right now.

Then...today, I had to take 3 of my kiddos to the doctor for their runny nose hacky sneezy thing that has been carrying on in our household for seriously over a month. No fevers...just sniffle sniffle cough hack sneeze hack sniffle...all..day...long. I'd been 'controlling' it with Zyrtec, but honestly it didn't really seem like it was helping all that much. And today I had finally had enough of it - so I took everyone to the doctor's office. I knew what they would say - "Upper Respiratory Infections - Here's some amoxicillin"...and that's what they said. So, now they are on antibiotics too. Gosh I hate pumping my kids full of drugs...but I was seriously at my wits end with dealing with the neverending congestion. So here's to hoping that the antibiotics will do the trick. I'm also sure that the house that we're renting, which is a bajillion years old, has so much caked up dirt and grime in the air ducts that I am thisclose to paying the $55 to get the air ducts cleaned. Hubby thinks that air duct cleaning is a scam - that they come in and then try and upsell you a new A/C unit...maybe they do...but I know how to say "No thank you, just the ducts please." I think I'm gonna do it anyway.

Also, I'm pretty sure I'm insane for signing all 3 of my older kids up for an extracurricular sport. Did I not realize that having 3 children in sports means - 3 different practice days & times and 3 games on Saturdays for the next month and a half??? Plus they have a midweek church event that they participate in. So, pretty much 3 of my weeknights and all day Saturday are spoken for until May. What in the HECK was I thinking? Oh that's right...I was thinking that since my oldest daughter got to play a couple seasons ago, that it was only FAIR that if the other girls wanted to play something that they should get the opportunity to, and that guilted me into signing all of them up. BUT, I also have no qualms about saying "Sorry kids, it's just too much" if it does indeed turn out to be too much - and they'll just have to get over it, because I'm not going to lose my mind over volleyball and tball for little kids.