Sick Kiddos....a Common Pre-Marathon Occurance

Last week, my oldest son was home from school on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday with a hacking cough, slight congestion and on Tuesday, a low grade fever.  He seemed much better on Wednesday so I sent him back to school on Thursday.  He was, however, still coughing quite a bit.  On Friday, I pulled him out of school early to take him to the dr.  He has asthma so whenever he gets a bug that doesn't seem to leave his lungs, I get a bit worried.  I expected the dr. to give him a steroid for the cough and send us on our way.  On a whim, she decided to do a strep test.  And how surprised do you think I was when it came back positive?  He spent most of the weekend laying around coughing and fatigued - fortunately Monday was a day off for them so he was able to take it easy for even longer without worrying about school.  Tuesday I sent them both off to school happy that the bug was behind us and that I didn't get it (selfish, yes. But I have a bit of a race coming up people!)  On Wednesday, I went to a yoga class (more on that later...big mistake) then headed to the grocery store.  In the middle of shopping, I get a call from the school that my younger son is in the clinic with a temp of 102 and complaining of nausea.  What. The. Hell.  I run out - leaving a cart full of groceries - and get him from school.  He went straight to bed and when he woke up, his stomach was better but his throat hurt.  Awesome.  Back to the dr. yesterday for a strep test.  Sure enough, it was positive.  My fridge is just bursting with antibiotics.  He is home again today and while he doesn't have a fever anymore (knock wood), I'll keep him home again tomorrow just to be safe.

Before every marathon I've run, there has been some sort of major bug in my house.  And by major, I mean, missing school, needing antibiotics kind of bug.  Before my first marathon (Shamrock in VA Beach), my youngest got the flu.  I was in the doctor's office 4 days before leaving for Virginia Beach nearly in tears when we got the test result.  I was already so nervous about running the marathon but at that moment, all I could think about was the fact that this sick kid had been laying on me on the couch for several days coughing, sneezing and generally sharing oozy stuff with me.  The doctor (a runner herself) clearly saw that I was about to have a major meltdown so she gave me Tamiflu.  I took all of it and fortunately for me, made it through Shamrock without getting the flu although I did have a head cold and my right ear was so inflamed and sore that I couldn't hear out of it.  A visit to my doctor the day after the marathon proved I had a major ear infection that ended up taking two rounds of antibiotics to fully clear.

My older son was home from school for several days and on antibiotics and a nebulizer for a chest cold the week before I ran (I use the word run lightly since I pretty much fell apart and walked quite a bit) the Outer Banks Marathon.

One of them, I honestly can't remember which, was sick 2 weeks before I ran the Delaware Marathon.  That was particularly stressful because that was the race I was running with the one goal of qualifying for Boston.

And now here we are.  Days away from Boston and both kids are on antibiotics.  I have used more antibacterial wipes in the last 10 days than I have in years.  I have gone through an entire can of Lysol spray.  I am in full on panic mode.  Which, if I'm not careful, will be enough in it's self to get me sick.  I am begging my body to hang on.  Just hang on and I promise I wont run another marathon EVER.  

Oh, and please don't tell my body that my fingers were crossed when I made that promise.....