Scary Situation

Well, on Sunday the 9th of December Joshua began not feeling well.  With glassy eyes and lethargy I knew he was coming down with a virus.  As long as he was comfortable and sleeping there was nothing really I could do for him.  Sky and I hadn't been out in a while together so we left him with his brothers while we went to play Bingo.  Not a big deal - he's 7, it's not like he's 2 - that's not the scary part.  While at Bingo I always have my phone on me and during an intermission I happened to check facebook.  I came across a post that kind of had me 'ticked.'  The mother of one of Joshua's friends, who also has a daughter in the same grade as Justin, posted a very cryptic message indicating that a child at the high school had died.  Unless you're going to explain messages like that only incite worry and fear and sadness in others.  Whereas all that is due - not via facebook to the masses of those near and far and everywhere in between.  So, of course, I was very concerned about Justin knowing this person and if it was due to a traumatic accident or if it was someone who had been sick for a long time - lots of questions.  Ultimately, I found out that a sophomore cheerleader had died.  She had been sick with a virus and the virus attacked her heart.  I think something like this happened about 2 years ago at the high school, too, but can't be sure.  Anyway, knowing that Joshua had a virus made me really scared.  Back to the timeline - when Sky & I got home from Bingo we sent Joshua to bed.  Upon getting up he vomitted - only that once.  So, it was a very short-lived virus.  I kept him home the next day.  He was fine except for an odd cough - one I normally associate with him being about to get sick again.  Tuesday, he went to school.  His cough was getting a little worse - but it was just a cough.  At 3:43 am he came screaming down the hallway.  I have never moved so fast!  I threw my clothes on and ran him to the ER.  Obviously, my fears over the death of the high school girl had me conjuring worst-case scenarios.  They gave him a breathing treatment and Tylenol for a  low-grade fever.  They took an x-ray and diagnosed him with bronchitis.  The doc said, of my concerns with the HS girl, that if that were the case - we wouldn't know until it was too late.  How is that for reassurance?  Could they check for a heart condition that might have them treating him differently?  Of course, but apparently that is medical fraud.  Don't you love insurance????  At any rate, Joshua remained home Wednesday and Thursday.  I took him for his follow-up on Friday and intended to take him to school for the rest of the day considering he'd be missing the entire next week while we went to GA.  But, when my neighbor down the road told me she was the 30th person to pick up her sick child from school - I wasn't risking it.  It's been about 2 weeks and he still is on the mend.