Sick of Being Sick
Is everyone at your kids' school sick? At our elementary school in Boca Raton, kids are throwing up in the halls, getting sent home with fevers and coughing their way through the day.
My 8-year-old, Ellie, got sent home with whatever is sweeping the school last week. She tested positive for strep throat and the doctor gave us a prescription for Omnicef. This took away the strep, but her fever remained at 103 five days later. 
So I took her back to the doctor.
He told us to go to the emergency room at West Boca Medical Center to make sure she didn't have pneumonia or mono. I did not want to go to the emergency room because I knew there would be lots of waiting, kids screaming and additional exposure to germs. But we went.
The most memorable part of my five hours there was listening to the nurses get an IV into Ellie's arm. I had to walk away, because I was crying too. But once that trauma was over, she forgot the needle was there.
She didn't have pneumonia or mono. They gave her an antibiotic called Rocephin through the IV, and the next day, no more fever.
I ended up getting sick too, but fortunately I am recovering and did not need an antibiotic IV. She is back at school, and I think every day about how other parents at our school are caught up in the madness of this sickness.
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