Sickness strikes again!

Germs have attached our house yet again. So far Dave is the only one who has not gotten sick this week, but he is not safe yet. Last Tuesday I noticed Emily had started a nasty cough. The kids in my class had been passing around a cold-like virus and I heard rumors of ear infections, fevers, and such. I was hoping that the girls and I had already had this illness, or that we had built up our immune systems from all of the other times we had been sick this year. When Emily started coughing, I really didn't think anything of it. As soon as her cough medicine kicked in, she would be fine. Tuesday night after her bath, she was crying and shaking because she was cold. I couldn't tell if she had a fever or not. I canceled plans for an outing I had on Wednesdays in case she woke up with a fever or her cough had gotten worse. Wednesday she was acting fine, no fever just a bad cough. Thursday I debated whether to take her to school or not, but her class was having a pizza party, it was the last day of school before Thanksgiving break, and my class was having a celebration as well, so I took her. She coughed all the way to school but once we got there, her medicine had kicked in and I didn't hear her cough again until 30 minuted before school was over. She came into my room hardly able to talk because of her cough. I gave her some more medicine but it took an hour to settle her down. After getting some harsh looks from parents in my class, I decided my decision to take her to school was probably a bad one. But she still had shown no other signs of a fever and she wasn't acting like she was in pain. Friday morning I woke up feeling like I had been run over by a truck. I was achy all over, my throat felt like it was on fire, and my nose was running like crazy. On top of that, I noticed Ally was starting to cough. I pulled it together long enough to do my once a week grocery shopping and after that, I am not sure how I made it through the day. Dave has to close every Wednesday night at work, and one Friday a month. This was his Friday to close so he didn't get home until after the girls were in bed. Unfortunately he also had to work Saturday for a pre-inventory work day. Friday night, Emily kept crying and coughing. She woke up at around 1:30 am complaining that her ears and her stomach hurt. I took her temperature and it was 103.1! I knew I needed to take her to the doctor so I stayed up for the next 2 hours looking for a place that would be open on Saturday. I finally get back to sleep but Em kept waking up and crying in pain. It was a long night. I still felt miserable when I woke up on Saturday. Ally's cough had gotten worse and her nose was now running. Emily was in terrible shape. I made her an appointment and we spent the morning getting ready for that. Once at the doctors office, we waited in a hot crowded waiting room for over an hour. When they finally called us, it was after lunch time and we were all hungry and cranky by then. Emily cried when the nurse wanted her to do anything and then the nurse left and we waited for the doctor for another half hour. The doctor came in and looked at Emily's ears and throat and told me she had ear infections in both ears. She mumbled some stuff I didn't understand and then left the room before I had time to say anything (she was in the room for less than 3 minutes). We waited another 10 minutes and a nurse came in and gave me Em's perscription. I asked as many questions to her as I could think of and then we headed home. I had hoped the doctor might take a look at Ally as well, but I didn't even had time to mention anything to her. I knew I would probably be back at the doctors the next day so I was very frustrated and upset. The rest of Saturday was spent trying to keep the girls comfortable and getting better myself. After the girls went to bed, Ally kept waking up and crying. I was praying she wasn't as bad off as Emily. Dave and I brought her into our room to sleep so that Emily could get a good nights rest. I turned on the humidifier and that seemed to help Ally sleep better. Sunday morning I called and scheduled Ally's appointment at the doctor. Dave was able to watch Em so I could take Ally alone. The wait was only about 20 minutes to get into the room and the doctor came in about 10 minutes after that. She checked Ally out and gave me some good news. Ally had no ear infections, her throat wasn't red, and her runny nose was clear fluid. She said Ally had more cold-like symptoms. She didn't need a perscription and everything I was doing was good (humidifier, saline drops in the nose, Tylenol). Today the girls seem to be about the same. Emily is still cranky but I can tell her medicines are working. Ally is still coughing and cranky but she doesn't have a fever. I am feeling a ton better as well. Hopefully by Thursday we will all be in great shape.
Our plans for Thanksgiving are to head to San Antonio on Thursday morning. Dave and I have learned our lesson about trying to leave Houston after 5 pm. There is way to much traffic and it is just not worth it. We will be spending Thanksgiving with my side of the family and we will probably come back Saturday or Sunday.