Contagious

So, Kolby has strep throat. I was pretty surprised to get the call from the doctor this morning saying that his culture came back positive for strep.

Last year both Kolby and Eli had strep throat. We had never dealt with that before, and Kolby had been complaining for a few days that his teeth and his mouth hurt and he had trouble eating because of that. I was pregnant with Camden at the time and thought about waiting another day or so to take Kolby to the doctor – because he was complaining about his teeth hurting, we thought that it might be a cavity – and I remember feeling pretty tired, but deciding to take him in for an appointment anyway just to have it checked out. We took the boys in, and it turned out that Kolby’s throat was sore, not his teeth. The doctor did a rapid strep swab on each boy and both came back positive immediately. It turned out that it was a good thing that we took them in that day, because I ended up going into labor and having Camden that night. And with strep throat they need to take the antibiotics for 24 hours before they are no longer contagious, so it was a good thing that they had gotten started on that before we went into the hospital.

So, for the last few days Kolby has been acting sick, but I didn’t even consider the possibility that it might be strep throat, because it has been nothing like when he and Eli got it a year ago. Since Friday Kolby has been getting fevers off and on – he would seem fine for most of the day and then spike a fever and lay around and act tired and fussy. Then the next day he would feel warm, but wouldn’t have a high fever, but he would act normal much of the day and then act sick again later on. He did that for several days, and then on Sunday we thought he had gotten over it. We went to church that morning, and then after the first hour of church Michael took his temperature and it was 102.7 degrees and his face looked all red. Michael took him home and he got some rest, but Kolby hasn’t had a fever since then. That night Kolby woke up drying several times in the night, so I decided to take him to the doctor’s office instead of his preschool classes on Monday morning, but on Monday and today he has not had a fever or acted sick at all. I took him in yesterday, and we noticed that the red rash on his face was also on his stomach. The doctor did a swab and it came back negative, and since Kolby had been acting normal all day, we figured it was something viral that he was already starting to get over. So last night we took him to a birthday party. I felt pretty bad this morning when the doctor called and said that the culture came back positive for strep today. I had to call the moms at the birthday party and the preschool at the YMCA to let them know that their kids may have been exposed to strep – so, if any of your kids have been around Kolby over the last few days, I’m sorry and I hope they don’t get sick.

Anyway, I have had a cough the last couple of weeks and we had no specific plans for today, so I was planning on staying home in my pajamas all day today. When I got the call from the doctor, I knew that we would have to go to the pharmacy to pick up Kolby’s medicine, and I really didn’t want to get all the kids all packed into the car just for that. Michael is so thoughtful – I called to tell him that Kolby has strep, and he came home from work during his lunch break to get Kolby’s insurance card and went to get the prescription and bring it back home, and then he had to go right back to work. Isn’t that nice? He knew that it was something I could do, and I just really didn’t feel like it, so he volunteered to do that for me. How kind!

So, Kolby started his antibiotics this afternoon. Once he has taken the medicine for 24 hours, he will no longer be contagious. I was glad to find out that he will not be contagious anymore by tomorrow afternoon, because we are having a little birthday party for Kolby on Friday and he would have been so disappointed if we had to cancel it. Plus, if we had to cancel the party on Friday, I don’t know when we would have rescheduled it, because this baby will be here before too long.

It’s interesting that Kolby has strep throat now, with this baby due so soon. When Eli was born Kolby had roseola, and when Camden was born Kolby and Eli both had strep throat. So I have been jokingly wondering what contagious sickness my boys would have when baby Isaac is born. Hopefully our family is all healthy when the new baby comes. We’re getting close – only 14 days to go until the due date!