Sick, sicker, sickest

That's the little game we've been playing around our house, who can get the sickest? The grand prize winner is Ella, surging to lead with bacterial pneumonia and the fabulous prize of wearing oxygen for a couple of days. (In the 2nd photo she is happy because I told her she gets to take it off.)
The good news: We have already met our family medical deductible for the year between my baby appt, my mole removal, and Ella's appts, x-rays, and home respiratory service. Caleb got an appt in there too. And it's only January 13.
The bad news: Our big plans for any tax return money are changed now to "pay medical bills."
The other good news: At least we live in a day and age where a pneumonia diagnosis does not mean our sweet little 3 year old will die. We have doctors, x-rays, antibiotics, oxygen, humidifiers, and lots of other things to keep us alive and healthy. Yay!
Ella really has been a pretty good sport about the whole thing, with taking meds and wearing her special "nose necklace," what we called her oxygen. Nights have been quite rough for a while, so I am kind of on the verge of sanity, but Kip helped over the weekend, and things are getting progressively better, so there is light on the horizon. Our only real concern now is to get the house as virus and bacteria free as we can before baby gets here. RSV? No thanks.
A few funny things have lightened the mood here, like Kip noting when he returned from church that our house was like a rest home...with the humidifier humming, the oxygen machine whizzing and "pffff"-ing, and us all talking quietly since our throats are sore. He he. Not very often is our home like a rest home. Then Ella asked me one night if I was putting water on the fire...I said, "Fire? No, there's no fire. I'm just putting water in the humidifier....oh I see. Humidi-FIRE. He he."
So, that's our life for the last little bit. Sure makes us grateful that we are generally very healthy people and don't have to deal with this kind of stuff all the time. Now I'm off to call the home healthcare people again to pick up their oxygen machine. The doctor faxed over the order yesterday, I called, they had no idea what I was talking about. Right on par for this group - when she delivered it she forgot some of her tools, forgot how to work some of the machines, all kinds of fun, and instead the family doctor had to come to our house to check her levels, help us get the tubes on, and answer some questions. Wish me luck getting them to pick it up before February.