Flu and Fleas

We've had a pretty busy last week, going up to Ames so Aaron could do the career fair for work at ISU. While there Q and I spent time with my sister and her boys.

The very next day Julie calls to tell me that she had to take her middle son to the ER and he came back positive for pneumonia. Not 20 minutes later my mom calls to tell me that Julie was back at the ER and she and my dad were meeting her there to pick up the other two boys.

A little later we find out that Julie's son had influenza in addition to the pneumonia and because of how fast it came on and that it's not flu season just yet, they are fairly certain that it is H1N1.

In the meantime I'm watching the other 2 boys and the youngest was running a temp and weezing. Julie comes by later to pick them up and take them to the doc to have them tested for the flu too and the youngest comes back positive for that. All this time I am not feeling so great myself, but I just had cold symptoms so it could have been worse. Later that evening Aaron, Q and I head back home.

The next day I'm still feeling aweful so Aaron stayed home to take care of Q. We made him an appointment with his pediatrican who put him on Tamiflu as a precaution and is going to have him get his flu shot this Friday. She also suggested that I see my doc and make sure that all I had was a cold and not H1N1 since it can start out with cold symptoms.

Off to the doc I went. I was there FOREVER feeling worse each passing minute! Then comes the flu test; sticking a cotton swab up my nose and wiggling it around! While not exactly painful, it was one of the most uncomfortable experences ever. And I was negative for the flu. I come home to find Aaron starting to feel bad.

Thankfully only Aaron and myself were sick and Q has been just fine the entire time.

BUT! Saturday night we notice that there are a lot of blood droplets in the sink in our bathroom where our cat Harvest likes to drink. Now I had noticed a couple droplets in the past couple of weeks here and there after she would drink, but just thought maybe she and Paprika had been fighting. She also was leaving little bits of fur around the house, but again I just thought she had been fighting.

So Sat. night Aaron and I take a closer look at her - she is biting herself an aweful lot and then we see the fleas crawling on her! We got both cats some meds to take care of the fleas that were on them as soon as we could. And we've been vaccuming the house every day since then. I pray that this gets resolved quickly and (fairly) easily! The war is on!