Serenity now...

I'm leaving for the Caribbean in 5 1/2 days. My mother-in-law will be here on Tuesday. On Saturday we found out that Bailey had strep. No big deal, happens about once a month. She got the antibiotic shot and we're good to go.

Tuesday, Bradley started running a fever. He was diagnosed with strep. But due to hearing Bailey's elaborate tale of screaming at the top of her lungs when she got the shot (which she actually did), my son was shaking in his boots from the time we got out of the car that he was going to get that shot. So I agreed to let him take the oral antiobiotic, which he started Tuesday at lunch. Yesterday he was feeling fine, looking great. Puerto Rico, here I come.

Today he woke up with a fever, headache, stomach ache and cough. Yep, we are now infested with influenza B. I'm starting to panic just a little bit.

Fortunately Bryant had the flu shot in January, so he got his booster this morning and I think he'll be fine. None of the rest of us got the flu shot because we never get the flu. I realize how stupid that sounds now.

So my sweet pediatrician wrote my entire family, sans Bryant, prescriptions for Tamaflu. $200 later, I'm shoving a "preventive" drug in us all, praying with all my heart that none of the rest of us come down with this. I just have a bad feeling about getting the flu in San Juan, or even worse, on a cruise ship! So if you hear stories in a couple weeks about the Crown Princess having to dock due to a flu epidemic, you'll know what happened.

If you love us, and this isn't too selfish of a request, can I ask you to pray that this illness will be confined to Bradley and that he will be rid of it as quickly as possible? I pray that he will be fever free by the time Jeff's mom gets here and that Bailey won't show any signs by then either so I can decontaminate this place.

Next year, flu shots all around.