Thursday, October 16, 2008

Katie has contracted the Creeping Crud

That is what I call those hard to pinpoint virus's that invade our children's little bodies. There is very little that you can do for them other than treat the symptoms.

Last night was awful for our sweet girl. She was delirious with fever. When it spiked up she became "over the top" restless. It was like she absolutely could not lay still and she was groaning, rubbing and scratching at her body. Nothing was making her comfortable and every time she looked into my eyes, it was as if to say...Mama..do something to make this go away!! I was feeling more anxious than normal about her fever because she rarely gets fever, let alone anything close to 104. I think at one point she was even higher than that but I had just taken her temp a few minutes prior and I did not want to bother her again. She was burning up! When Justin was a baby and small child, high fevers were the norm for him, so I adjusted myself to not panicking but I have to admit, I felt a bit panicky about Katie last night.

Needless to say, we were up and down with a feverish and crying child all night and when we awoke at 7:00 am to get Ethan off to school, she had slept for about 3 hours straight and she was down to 100 degree temp. I took her to the pediatrician today and by the time I got there her temp was completely normal. She wasn't even coughing as she had been the night before. The nurse practitioner that saw us said that this virus has been going around. Really, all I had to do was to look at the waiting room to see that something is indeed going around...ugh!

Katie's chest, ears and throat were fine and even though she did detect the congestion, it had not become a bacterial issue of any kind. So now, we are just to give her Albuterol syrup for the cough (I hate this because it is a Steroid and makes her crazy) but we need to do it because Katie's congestion issues tend to quickly escalate to bronchial problems and airway constriction issues. Hopefully, the creeping crud will leave as quickly and mysteriously as it arrived.

So now we are home and I am giving her lots of TLC and really that is an elixir for what ails mama as well ;-)

OK, now to the happier part of my post...

Yesterday was the Sukkot celebration at Katie's preschool. Sukkot is the Jewish harvest festival commemorating the booths in which the Israelites resided during their 40 years in the wilderness. Many Americans, upon seeing a decorated Sukkah (temporary structure) for the first time, remark on how much the Sukkah (and the holiday generally) reminds them of Thanksgiving. This may not be entirely coincidental: I was taught that our American pilgrims, who originated the Thanksgiving holiday, borrowed the idea from Sukkot. The pilgrims were deeply religious people. When they were trying to find a way to express their thanks for their survival and for the harvest, they looked to the Bible for an appropriate way of celebrating and found Sukkot. Personally, I think that is a very cool connection between the Christian and Jewish religions.

I found a very cool website to teach children about the Jewish religion. I am sharing it not just for my Jewish friends but also for anyone else who wants their children to learn about the world around them and the customs of other people. http://www.torahtots.com/home.htm

So, Marc and I were invited to celebrate with the children under the Sukkah. It was a beautiful day, sunny and breezy. We sang and ate fruit with the children, teachers and the Rabbi. My mom also came as she had volunteered to read to the class earlier that morning during their library time.

Enjoy the pictures and I will be back later as my dear friend Viv has tagged me and I need to put my thinking cap to let you know some interesting facts about me!

These first few pictures are of Nana reading to Katie's class. You can see Katie on the left hand side and my mom said that as she read each of her three books to the class, they kept creeping up closer and closer to her until all of the children were almost on top of her. Then they posed for a class picture with Nana...so sweet.












Now, outside to the Sukkah, it was standing room only! Marc and Katie could not really get all the way under for quite awhile.



yup, standing room only!

The Rabbi and the music teacher leading the children in song



Katie's sweet friend, Elayna and her mama, Adrienne

Katie eating her fruit, although check out where the spoon is (under her nose...huh?)

The following two pictures are class pics with teachers and families. Katie is in the center in blue and I am in the back in the middle of the group (Marc is taking the pic) The second picture is all of us making funny faces ;0P Click on the pics to see them a bit better.

Class

7 comments:

Mary said...

You've been tagged! See my blog for the details. :-)

Minouche said...

I am so glad Katie is a little better, and the fever is gone!!! I love the pictures! :o) How nice that Nana could come to read for Katie's class! :o) Thank you for posting that link! ;o) I will check it out with Yasmin.:o)

*smooch*
Minouche

Vivian M said...

What a great Sukkot! I am glad Katie is feeling better. Hopefully tonight everyone will get some much needed rest. :o)
I am looking forward to reading your random and weird comments about yourself in the tag game!

RamblingMother said...

Hope she is feeling better. You do know that the first Christians were Jews and practiced the Jewish religion. Christians were first called Christians at Antioch. Prior they were called followers of "the Way" or "Christ followers." One of our greatest apostles, Paul, was a Pharisee of the highest order, Saul, who was taught under Gamalial (sp?). The Christian faith is def. an extension of the Jewish faith and it is ashame that we as Christians haven't celebrated more of the Jewish holidays.

Unknown said...

My Peter has a similar creeping crud out on the West Coast. He's been home for 3 days now (and driving me a bit batty due to his boredom). His fever has not been nearly as high as your Katie's, though.

Love following your blog. I followed along when you went to China for Katie and then again for Ethan. Your family is beautiful.

Teresa

horvethappenings.blogspot.com

Tammie said...

Oh how that creeping crud scared the c$%p out of me last month. Erin had exactly the same thing on what would have been the first 2 days of school. And of course Nurse Terri prescribed the same exact stuff. Either way, I'm glad to hear that Katie Starr is feeling better.

Seeing the pics of your mom reading to Katie Starr's class brought tears to my eyes. She is such an involved nana. Mamasona is one heck of a lady. No wonder everyone who knows her loves her.

Happy Sukkot to you guys!

Gail said...

Hope the creeping crud has left your house and Katie. I hate it when kids are sick.

I love it when you write about Katie's school. I'm obviously not Jewish and love to learn more about the traditions. :)