Excuses, excuses, excuses

I realize we haven't posted in the longest time, for one and only one reason: We are having the hardest time getting WELL!!!
It started off when all 4 of us went to the doctor and were told we had an upper respiratory infection caused by a virus, and this years strain is lasting 2 or 3 weeks...GREAT! For 10 days or so we take over the counter junk and pray. Then, the boys have a fever spike and we try and take them to the doc, but there is only one available appointment, so the other most go to urgent care. Both boys have double ear infections..so once again meds...my poor Taft is on his 4th at this point in 3 months! We also see an ENT for Taft, and he doesn't feel confident in deciding tubes or not, so refers him to a DIFFERENT ENT who specializes in pediatrics and pressure exams?? Too bad the next appointment available with this ENT isn't until Jan 31st..bummer, hold strong until then Mr. Taft! The next morning I wake up shaking and can't even hold my poor little men, it feels like they weigh 5000 pounds. Of course it is a Saturday so I have to go to urgent care as well. Well 103 degree fever and 2 chest x-rays reveal pneumonia and double ear infections..great! So breathing treatments, meds and inhalers later I am out the door. We have one day to recover and then pack the car for Texas, sick or not, we will not miss Christmas with our Family! Day 2 in Texas my ears have only gotten worse, and I can hear NOTHING, and I mean Nothing in my left ear...Texas urgent care here we come. Well the ear infection got too bad and ruptured my ear drum, hence the deaf side! The doc says my original antibiotics would never have killed the infection, so I am prescribed something 16x as strong. After coming back home we have a follow-up for Zeke on Tuesday to make sure his infection is gone, well it is! Hooray! At least one of my poor babies is healthy! The boys get their flu shot, by request of their pediatrician, even though I am questioning their age and weight! They cry and scream, and so do I because they are clawing me, like I did it too them! That evening, we go to cover the boys again with blankies before going to bed and Tyler calls me over to Zeke's crib...he feels like he came out of the oven! We snatch him up and his fever is just over 103. What? We left the doctor healthy just that afternoon! We try Tylenol, washcloths, baths, etc..nothing is working. We even go as far as to use the Jamaican trick of rubbing them with rum that our Jamaican family taught us. The second the doctors office opens we call and get an appointment. Too bad the only available is the same time as my follow-up for pneumonia and my ears! We split up, Ty takes Zeke and I take Taft the monster. As usual Taft is running on all cylinder...grabbing everything in sight, spitting, doing his Donald duck voice..none of it "bad", just so crazy and loud! He wants everyone to see and watch him. An x-ray reveals my pneumonia is still there, great, but the ear drum shows scarring where he believes it is starting to heal itself, perfect! I was starting to have nightmares about the procedure of using a piece of flesh from my nose as a new ear drum that he described during my first appointment, yikes! Meanwhile Tyler is with Zeke, and seems his fever could be a reaction to flu shot, as well, as overnight he developed an Ear infection. Seriously? Our ear infection follow-up was like 18 hours before this? Nuts! They keep us there for as long as possible to check and recheck his temp. They are afraid for Tyler to take him home with such a terrifying temp. So poor Ty spends most of the day doing everything in a doctors office to bring his temperature down. Success...2.5 hours later! We gather meds for Zeke and myself at the pharmacy and return home praying this is the end of our insane health drama. Plan now is Taft sees the second ENT at the end of the month, I have another x-ray and follow-up in 10 days, and God heals the whole little family! Wooo....that seemed like a long story, of yeah it was, it has been over 5 weeks at this point!