News del Mercado: Grads and Dad

We've been to a lot of graduation parties since school ended. You know, it's the Michigan way. Austin got to go to the most important one for him, his best friend Owen's older brother, but then Austin got sick with some crazy end-of-the-year sickness and couldn't go to the other 3 that we went to. It's been over a week, and Austin's still sick, though I can say he's finally getting better.

Last Monday, two days before school got out, his throat started to hurt. Those last 3 days were half days because of finals. He managed ok on Monday and Tuesday. By Wednesday, he had a fever and I still had to send him for his last day, with a face mask, so he could take his last final. After school, I took him to the doctor to see if he had strep. He had spots on his throat and I was sure it was strep. Well, the rapid test came back negative. In the following couple of days, the tests for covid, influenza A and B, and the longer strep test came back negative. Then, he developed problems with his ears. They hurt and were plugged up. Meanwhile, his throat still hurt and he started coughing. On Sunday, he woke up with bright red eyes, so red I didn't think it was even pink eye because they didn't look like any pink eye I'd ever seen. His voice sounded awful and he was all plugged up. Monday morning his eyes still looked horribly red along with a lot of goop, so I took him to the doctor again and they looked at everything. His ears weren't necessarily infected, just plugged up. They didn't think he actually had pink eye. It sounded like they weren't really sure what to label his sickness as, so they prescribed him amoxicillin and said they would treat it as a sinus infection. They also prescribed him eye drops for us to pick up on Wednesday if his eyes didn't improve. Now it is Tuesday, more than a week since his first symptom of a sore throat. He had a bloody nose this morning while trying to blow his nose and he still sounds congested, but his eyes are starting to improve and he told me a few minutes ago that his throat finally doesn't hurt anymore. I'm really hoping he's done with this because it has been a long week of sickness for him.

Meanwhile, Jason had developed a horrible cough, as is his main symptom with most things he catches. He caught it before Austin. We think he might have gotten it from Erik who had an ear infection before that, but they treated him with amoxicillin immediately. When they told us Austin's was viral and wouldn't give him anything on that first visit, we were confused as to where everyone caught everything. Jason's cough was one of his more intense ones with lots of late nights up coughing and plenty of coughing throughout the day. He sounded pretty bad too. He had a sore throat, but that was his only other symptom. Luckily for him, he just started to feel better for Father's Day.

I made him a breakfast hash with peppers, sausage, and eggs and then copycat In and Out burgers with broccoli and fries for dinner. The burgers really did taste like In and Out! I was super happy about that because I'm not the greatest at working with meat, but it was mostly the sauce and the veggies that made the difference with the burgers. I made copycat Wendy's frosties for dessert that also were surprisingly easy and much like the real thing. Kade made blonde brownies as well because he typically makes his gifts in the form of dessert. We played some card games and relaxed together. Jason and I got his gift the day before- new church shoes that he picked out.

This was actually Saturday night.

Sunday night.

We zoomed with Victoria too.

Kade and I have been trying not to get sick. I think Kade will get it in two days when Austin's all better. I probably won't get it because my immune system has been insane this year! I almost had a sick student every week, or a least every other week, for the whole year, with strep, covid, pink eye, stomach bug, flu, pneumonia, and other things, and I never even got a cold this whole school year.

Also, Kade is dog-sitting for two weeks, so Pepper got to celebrate Jason with us too. She's such a good dog and we're enjoying having her here! The cats are getting used to her as well.