Tis The Season - Already?

Orin has his first lower respiratory infection (bronchitis) of the season. It's not even cold yet! Hey Crystal, did you send us some of your germs? I was thinking that I hope this isn't a glimpse into our winter, but the Doctor said that this time of year can sometimes be worse for this kind of illness. Orin has had a cough and fever for the past 4 days and this morning when he woke up he couldn't stop coughing (along with wheezing) for 30 minutes and eventually just started crying. His appointment wasn't until 4pm so I had given him a prescription strength cough medicine from when he was sick last January. Of course, that along with Motrin helped the coughing and the fever. So then I'm wondering "Should still go to the Doctor." There is nothing worse than knowing your kid has been sick for days but you give him medicine to control the symptoms so by the time you get to the Doctor he isn't showing them anymore! I have to admit that a few times I've skipped the Motrin if I know I'm going to the doctor just so I can prove they have a fever. But luckily the medicine wore off about 5 minutes before the doctor walked in and Orin had a pretty bad coughing spell just in time. ;-) It's probably my fault that it's gotten so bad. When he's sick he still has tons of energy - even though his less than normal - so we can continue to go, go, go. On Tuesday we shopped, Wednesday we went to his "Preschool Picasso" class and then swam for almost 4 hours. Thursday we stayed home (apart for a quick lunch with daddy) to try to get him better, but this morning he was worse. Micaiah has had a fever and cough too so I'm sure he'll be next. The Doctor sent us home with extra strong antibiotics, more cough medicine, and a nebulizer for albuterol treatments so we'll have Orin drugged up and better in no time!