the sickly one

It seems to me, that in most families, especially once you reach three kids or more, there is a sickly one.

A child that gets every illness that passes through the home and gets it worse than anyone else.  There are several families in which I can easily identify their "sickly one." 

If there is going to be a complication, a secondary illness, this kid is going to have it.

In our house, this is Gracie.  From the time she was a baby it was clear that her system was more sensitive to illness.  From 6 months on, it seemed that she was sick at least once a month.  Anytime she got a fever, she would vomit.  Several times usually. Often the vomiting was just her body's reaction to illness and wasn't related to gastrointestinal issues.  One the fever was controlled, the vomiting ceased.

We even had our former home tested for mold to see if there was anything environmental causing her illnesses because they were so frequent.

Miss Rose has yet to have a true vomiting episode.  She's sturdy!  Allergies and sinus infections do plague her, but she holds up pretty well.  So far Lily seems to be following in her biggest sister's footsteps.  At 10 months, she's had a few colds and fevers, but doesn't react that violently.

Early in November, it was Miss Rose who came down ill first, and Gracie followed a few days later.  After a week of what I liked to call the plague (which probably was H1N1) Miss Rose was pretty illness free.

For Gracie though, that plague turned into a sinus infection.  Which returned 3 days after completing antibiotics.  So we are now on round 2 of antibiotics.  Hives or a rash showed up on her abdomen Friday night.  Since it was still there yesterday, the doctor wanted to see her. It was determined that it's probably viral and related to all the illness she is dealing with.

Oh, and the fever has been back on and off the past few days.  Enter last night.  Before Bean and I could even drift off to Never Neverland, Gracie was coughing, and vomiting.  I'm not sure if the vomiting was related to all the phlegm she has or if it was a stomach thing.  She seemed to vomit until her stomach was empty last night, and was dry heaving a bit this morning.

Back to last night.  Just when we would clean things up and get her settled and return to bed, we'd hear it again.  The amounts weren't copious, as she didn't eat much dinner.  Although I was disappointed that after getting her to eat some of her green beans last night, there they were once again.  At one point, Bean had her and she vomited all down his bare chest.  He was real happy about taking a midnight shower.

Gracie spent several hours in our bed, which she wasn't too happy about.  But it was much easier to sit her up before she choked more and deal with the small amounts of vomit and phlegm.  Yeah, Bean and I didn't sleep much.

So here I am, home this morning. Bean is at work and will relieve me around noon so I can head in to work.  So far, no vomit this morning.  She's been drinking juice and water, but hasn't had interest in food.

I want my girl to get better once and for all!