We'll remember always, Graduation day

Know what goes really well with a graduation ceremony?

-- A fever of 104.2 degrees

-- 2 missing kindergarteners and another 2 that look like they're about to pass out in the middle of the slide show.

-- 50% of the 8th grade class sitting backstage watching their own graduation on video feed so they don't infect the other half of the class. They were allowed to come out and get their diplomas, then they were sent back to isolation.

So, yeah....

There's an epidemic whipping its way around Josh's school. It hit Wednesday, just in time for graduation on Thursday. Josh wasn't feeling great that morning but he didn't want to miss graduation so I sent him to school. We showed up for the ceremony 3 hours later and I immediately knew letting him go was a mistake. He was flushed and sweating and looked miserable. I felt badly about possibly exposing the other kids to whatever he had, and then I found out a bunch of the other kids were already sick too. Some of them were even getting tested for swine flu (pardon me: H1N1). So when Josh passed out in the car on the way home and his temp registered 6 degrees higher than normal, I decided that we, too, got to do the swine flu test on Friday morning. They stuck a nasal swab up Josh's nose to do the test (fun!), but we still don't have the results. And he's been on Tamiflu for the last few days just in case things are swiney, which is a good thing, because.....

The school called on Friday afternoon to let us know they had positively identified cases of H1N1. The other kindergarten parents I know all called to see how Josh was doing and to let me know their kids were feverish too. All of them have been tested at this point but none of us have any results yet.

But the good news is although Josh was very sick on Thursday, he was feeling much better by Friday night. His fever was under control and you could tell just by looking at him that he was doing well. He was a little sad that we had canceled his graduation party, but since he had slept through it anyway there wasn't much point. He was so wiped out during the ceremony and afterward with the fever, chills, headache, etc that he really didn't have the chance to enjoy any of it. Once he started feeling better he was happy to see all the leis, decorations, balloons, etc that he had gotten.

Then, of course, it was my turn. I got to show off my own personal best fever (for the last 10 years at least) of....drumroll please....103.9! Woo hoo! I can't wait to see our electricity bill this month, since I self-medicate with loads of ibuprofen and scorching hot, water-heater-emptying showers alternated with running the AC at full blast. Hey, it works. Sunday was miserable, but today I am human again and just hoping Daniel doesn't get sick.

Here are a couple of photos of my little graduate. One is right after the ceremony and the other is after he started feeling better.



Later that day, feeling a little better: