The GERMS are here! The GERMS are here!

Mary woke up Tuesday morning cranky and with a fever of 100. Her only complaint was a sore throat. John stayed home with her, and by the time I got home from work she was at 102.5. Wednesday was my "turn". She was still feverish, and I stayed home with her. By lunchtime, she was feeling and acting fine--and only at 99, so I thought she'd kicked it. FOOL. By six o'clock that night she was back up to 102. Thursday, John couldn't get out of some meetings, so I had to stay home again (my boss took pity on me and "bent the rules" a bit to let me take an emergency vacation day even though someone else was already off. TWO unpaid days in one week is a bit much--er, technically, not much at all!). I took the poor kid (who by now had a cough and the sniffles added to her slowly growing list of complaints) to the doctor. Office strep test: negative. What? The pediatrician gave Mary a handful of sample antibiotics to start just in case the strep test that goes out to the lab comes back positive. (If it comes back negative, she doesn't take anymore; positive, we have to pick up a prescription.) Other than that, there is nothing that could be done for the poor sick girl--whose temp was at 103.6 while we were at the doc's. The doc says she just must have a very, very nasty cold (ring any bells with the crap I had last week?).

Today John is leaving to go to Maryland for his fantasy baseball league. But Mary is still sick with a fever. And I can't have the day off as the only other person in the whole freaking office who knows how to do my job is out of town (unpaid--as we had that other person on vacation this week, remember?). Great. Now what? John took care of Miss Sickly until 12:00, then brought her to work for me. Then when I got my work done, I could go home. Great thing to spring on your boss--bringing a super-sick, possibly contagious kid to work because your husband has to go out of town.

Don't think I'll be getting any promotions anytime soon.