Triathlon Man - and a lot of viruses

It’s been a really tough couple of weeks in the Hughes-Downing household.

First, Alfie came down with Croup. On day 3 I woke up to find him struggling to breathe, so I rushed him into the doctor’s to be told we’d got him just in the nick of time and if I’d left it until the evening he’d probably be in hospital on a nebuliser.

Thanks to steroids, he made a relatively quick recovery at home .

On the day he started feeling better, Molly came home from school with a fever and sore throat and then on Day 4 she woke up unable to walk or use her legs at all.

Cue some serious panic from me.

Thank goodness for New Zealand’s “Healthline”, which means we have trained nurses at the end of the phone 24/7 any day of the year. One phone call later and a few questions from the nurse and I was told to get her straight down to the emergency after hours doctor.

Here came the problem: we are a one-car family and Jake was at the other end of the city, with the car, doing his first Triathlon and therefore not answering his mobile phone (why I even tried it I have no idea, but my brain wasn’t working too well that morning). Instead, I called a couple of friends to see if they could take us but it was 7.30am on a Sunday morning and unsurprisingly I got no replies from anyone.

One very expensive taxi ride later, and she was diagnosed with a combination of influenza, bronchitis, laryngitis and a mystery virus which had affected her muscles. That's a lot of bugs for such a little girl! 

Two visits to the doctor later and we finally got the antibiotics we needed to get her back on track. Yesterday she even managed to get dressed and we got her outside in the garden for a bit. I’m hoping she might even get back to school tomorrow (she’s had a whole week off already). 

Oh - and for those who are wondering.... Jake really enjoyed the triathlon, completed it much faster than he'd hoped for, and managed to come first in his age group/category! (I shouldn't really point this part out, but I can't resist: he was actually the only person in his age group/category!)