When it rains, it pours!

We had to take my 6 year old daughter to the ER. She woke up crying in the middle of the night and couldn't move, her neck was so sore and stiff. We called our doctor and he said to take her to the ER because he could see her, but a meningitis test would have to be done there anyway. Long story short...she didn't have meningitis, thank God! She did however test positive for strep throat. Her lymph nodes and muscles where very sore from the strep. She is now on antibiotics and isn't contagious any more, as of right now (24 hours later).

My son, who just had 2 tonsil surgeries, spiked a fever and I was afraid he had strep as well. I took him to our local Urgent Care to be tested, last night. He came back negative. I was surprised! I thought for sure that was why he had a temperature of 100.4*. He woke up at 10:10pm crying, inconsolably. We had to calm him down to give his some medicine. This is so frustrating! It seems as if he is getting worse again! Can he possibly have yet another blood clot? Wouldn't the Urgent Care doctor see it? Did they do the strep test right? Is he really positive? After many bad experiences with this hospital, I just don't trust them any more. All I know that if we have another night of screaming and crying, I am calling the doctor that did his surgery and ask what is going on???!!!

So, they are both home from school today. My daughter can go back tomorrow, and my son, hopefully his preschool class on Friday. We'll see how it goes.

My nephew is also home from school today. He says his stomach doesn't feel well. I really wasn't surprised by his announcement this morning. My other two were staying home and he has some hypochondria issues. I fully expected him to be sick today. I even discussed it with my mom and husband yesterday.

Speaking of my nephew, he's having a really hard time. He really seams to hate living with us, even though we are doing all we can do to make him feel welcome. We have gone way out of our way to let him visit "home" when he can, driving 3 hours, to and from, taking and picking him up every time. My mom also has to rearrange her schedule to accommodate him, which she does, but it doesn't help. He just mopes around all of the time, or sits in his room. It's really frustrating! I know this is hard on him, but he could try. I mean, just a little bit. I never hear "please" or "thank you" for taking him either, just "When are we leaving?". He cries when I pick him up from my mom, it's just so hard. I picked him up last Sunday and all he said was "I can't wait for Thanksgiving" - meaning, when he can be with them again. No thank you for going way out of your way to make me happy...nothing. It's very frustrating. I don't know what else I can do to perk him up, get him out of his depression...and yes, he sees two councilors at school, their procedure for kids in this situation, so I hope it will help. I just feel so helpless on this front...