Pneumonia is Contagious? Imagine that.

As you may remember, Michael walked around for a couple of weeks with a cough. He never ran a fever or had a runny nose, so I figured he has some sort of mild cold that would work itself out. Eventually it got to the point that he couldn't play because every time he tried to run he'd start coughing uncontrollably. After two weeks of a cough I decided a visit to the pediatrician was in order. Diagnosis: Walking Pneumonia.

A week or two later (last Friday), Ava started running a 102 something fever. Her appetite was non-existent and she was a little more tired than usual, but there were no other obvious signs of illness. Michael hadn't been showing symptoms for well over a week, so I thought it was more likely that Ava had picked something up at school than that she'd come down with his pneumonia. I decided to wait it out assuming it was a cold or virus. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday passed in a very similar manner with fever, fatigue, and lack of appetite. Monday a cough began to creep into the mix.

I looked up fever in the pediatrician office's handy manual Monday night and it said to call for an appointment if a fever lasted more than three days with no obvious source. Oops. So, I finally called Tuesday (Day 5). Bottom line: pneumonia. Lovely.

The silver lining to this mess is that they prescribed Ava the same super-effective on this particular bug antibiotic they gave Michael. 24 hours later and she's already much better.

Hindsight is always 20-20.

As a side note, Ava is a serious trooper. The times in my life that I've run a high fever I'm completely wiped out and pitiful. Ava pretty much went about her daily activities in a relatively cheery manner. She didn't want to eat and was a little more sensitive than usual, but other than that she was fine. The pediatrician commented on how cheery she was. It reminds me of the time when she was a baby and we took her in for something (I don't remember what) only to find she had a double ear infection. We never would have known. The child is amazing.