Swine Flu and Jack's Baptism

I have not been too concerned about the Swine Flu "pandemic". There have been cases about 45 miles from us and goodness knows we have plenty of kids at school who probably went to Mexico over Spring Break but still....not so worried.

Last Thursday Jack woke up at 2:30am saying his head hurt really bad and he felt warm...temp 102, so I gave him Tylenol, sent him back to bed and figured he wouldn't go to school. He came down stairs in the morning with no appetite, still the headache and fever, and no energy, but no cough, no congestion. He sat on the couch for most of the day not moving, not really eating, and just taking the medicine every 4 hours. Around 3:00 I gave him more medicine but he felt hotter so I took his temp again...104. Since I have 5 kids and have been through the fever roller coaster many times this usually wouldn't worry me but because of the whole flu scare I figured I'd be cautious and call his doctor. The doctor was out so I talked with his nurse. She sounded alarmed and told me to take him to the ER immediately... not Urgent Care... the ER. That did make me nervous so we rushed him down to St Mary's Medical Center. We checked in and they gave us hand sanitizer and a mask for Jack.
He was pretty patient about it but he didn't like it much. We were sequestered in another room with 3 other people with similar symptoms. I was thinking at that point that if Jack didn't have the Swine Flu he may get it now...and so would we.

After an hour there we were led to another smaller room by ourselves for another wait. A Physician's Assistant finally came in and said Jack was fine....he didn't even have the symptoms they get concerned about with the Swine Flu...the coughing and congestion which turns into Pneumonia quickly. I felt dumb. I told her the nurse had sent us in and I guess they had been dealing with that all day, people being sent there without really needing to be.

Yea! My little Jackson just had the regular sick stuff, nothing scary! Now we were just hoping he'd feel better by Saturday for his Baptism...and he did.

For any of you who aren't familiar with how things work in the LDS Church, kids are baptized at the age of 8, the "age of accountability" where they are capable of making the decision and are responsible for their choices. We baptize by immersion as Jesus Christ was baptized by John the Baptist, one having authority, setting the example for us.

I was excited about Jack's baptism because my youngest little guy was taking this big step and because Jeremy turned 16 a few weeks ago and was ordained to the office of a Priest in the Aaronic Priesthood so he had the authority to baptize Jack. It was sweet that Jackson wanted his big brother to baptize him and sweet that Jeremy's first baptism was his little brother. Gage will have the same opportunity when he turns 16 with Ally since she turns 8 just a few weeks before. The problem with that plan at this point is that Ally says she wants Jeremy to baptize her because she likes him better. That means Gage has two years to win her over! I'm sure he will.
Jeremy did a great job. I was so proud of them both! Gage gave a talk on Baptism and did well with that too. I feel so blessed that I have been given such good kids! After the baptism we all went to Janet's for a little get together...with food of course. It was getting dark by then but all the kids were determined to swim, so they did! Julia didn't even wait to get her suit on. She jumped in to the spa with her dress on so I had to pull her out and change her. The kids had a good time swimming until it got too cold while the adults had a good time visiting which was a nice end to a good day.