I Wish I Looked This Good When I Was Sick.

"Well, it looks like we'll have to swab his nose to rule out the flu and then prick his toe and run some blood work to determine if we need to take a chest x-ray. To check for pneumonia."

Excuse me? I'm sorry...What was that again? PneuWHAT?

Let me just say that the above words were spoken to us today by Dr. Julia, who just last week prescribed an antibiotic for Jack's double ear infection. Since that time, Jack got better for a couple of days over Thanksgiving - but then developed a cough that was almost constant, a terribly runny nose and a pretty high fever. He has refused to eat for nearly three days and has hardly slept because of the coughing. So, I think it was just as perplexing to Dr. Julia as it was to us why our baby was getting worse instead of better.

PRAISE THE LORD that the pneumonia test came back negative, as did the test for the flu. It was determined that Jack has an extremely aggressive and nasty virus that is very much like, but is not actually, the flu. It's still awful, but is welcome news to my ears after seeing my little boy so sick for the past several days. It could be so much worse.

Last night was the hardest, by far. Either Phillip or myself pretty much held the little guy all night. Held him so that he could be upright to breathe easier, but also held him because he was so hot with fever and was crying out in pain in his sleep. I think we all just wanted and needed to be close.

Tonight will hopefully be better, although I am holding a recently-awakened-but-sleeping- again-and-slightly-feverish Jack as I type. Dr. Julia prescribed a wonderful cough medicine with codeine that should give him enough comfort to sleep more peacefully. At least, let's hope so.

I hope you all enjoy the photo. It's one of only a couple of happy faces I've seen over the last couple of days. It's special to me because I know that behind that sweet, sweet smile is a little boy who felt really terrible but who smiled at his Mommy anyway - because he knew she was worried and needed to see it. Love is such a scary, wonderful thing, isn't it?