triple threat-itis

oy, what a week. My daughter has been sick for 8 days now, and is still coughing like a maniac. It started with obvious signs of a virus last Saturday, when she was weak and headachey and just wanted to go home instead of continuing on with our Tel Aviv walkabout on a gorgeous day. By the evening, she was feverish and stayed that way for five days.

I've never seen her sick for this long before, and rarely take her to the doctor, as almost everything goes away by itself. But by the end of 4 days of fever, I was ready to throw in the towel. Mr. S. took her to his doctor, as the pediatrician was in miluim*, and called me at work afterward to tell me he left with a prescription for antibiotics for bronchitis, tonsilitis and sinusitis. Woohoo -- the full monty.

Until that point she hadn't even told me her throat hurt! I've managed to keep her away from antibiotics for many years (it's easy when you avoid doctors), so this is quite a big deal in terms of illness for her. By then she was hacking spasmodically, and has been parked in bed -- my bed, that is -- all week (during the day).

It's a new record: she's managed to miss an entire week of school, and still be sick. Normally, she needs no more than one day off when she's sick. Maybe once she got two days. This is pretty sick. And yet: no emergency visits in the middle of the night due to breathing difficulty -- that happened once, so I'm very glad we haven't come to that this time. But she does have periods of nonstop coughing, so she's taking a lot of ventolin (the puffer), which she had almost stopped using in recent years.

Now the bonus: She gets to miss two more weeks, as the Pesach holiday has now begun. In the second week, after the seder, we're going to a hotel at the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) for three days, but this week may be challenging for dear Mr. S who is in a very intense work period and trying to focus. Little Ms doesn't let us focus all that much.


* army reserve duty