Back to Basics

Here's what I don't understand. How is it, that we can go the entire winter without so much as a sniffle and then manage to get sick multiple times in a two month span over the course of summer? I really don't get it. I was paranoid (and I do mean paranoid) about swine flu. Heck...so was half the world. We even got the vaccine due to the fact that Alex and Abby were in the 'high risk' category. We went the whole winter with zero illnesses. No idea how we got away with that, but we did and I was more than grateful for the break on Alex's poor lungs. He needed a break for his lungs to heal from all his past wheezing. So enters summer. The joy of leaving the house - parks, zoos, playgrounds...the sky is the limit. And instantly, we end up with two stomach bugs (which is a first for my kids). We also caught a nice cold somewhere in there which we just so happened to pass on to Mandy's kids thanks to a tornado warning and us needing shelter in their basement. We now are working on the second cold of the season. After our trip to spend time with family, Alex picked up something that he unwillingly shared with the rest of us. His asthma has been under control for the most part and so I was mildly surprised to hear him wheezing. He hasn't had to use his inhaler in over a year (thank you God). So I'm okay with that and I never once had my 'oh-my-gosh-my-kid-might-stop-breathing-in-the-middle-of-the-night' panicking. He actually only needed the inhaler at night due to drainage so it's a massive improvement from his past bouts of illnesses. The last night and day of our trip, Alex started to get really congested and coughed a lot. Heather and Ben have dogs and I assumed they were kicking his dog allergy into high gear (which we are seeing signs of him outgrowing). Honestly, I'm glad that it turned out to be a cold. It means that his allergies are not bothering him as bad as they used to and we are getting more freedom as to what he can be exposed to. Is that wrong? It's not like I secretly wish for colds. I just have to second guess ever drip of snot that comes out of his nose. It was nice to know what caused it this time. So after the past weekend, I've had to break out his Xopenex and other various meds to keep him out of the danger zone. I must admit it was a challenge for me to remember everything I had to do. I even discovered that his inhaler is expired along with one of his other rescue meds. (Don't worry...the doc said that's okay and I've got an order for new stuff.) Even though it was a rough weekend going back to the basics, the cold is on the way out and it was 90% stress free.