A couple of sickos

Two days after returning from Kyoto, my husband came down with a fever.  I was not impressed.  He leaves on a business trip soon, and no one wants to be sick on a business trip.  Not to mention, I didn't want our son to get sick either or myself for that matter. 

When I got the call from our son's school this morning, I took a deep breath.  He had come down with a fever and I needed to go pick him up immediately.  Luckily, my husband's fever broke overnight after a day and a half of not leaving our room.  So, at least I wasn't looking at caring for 2 sickos at once.  But, just as his fever disappeared the coughing started in earnest. 

When I picked my son up, he had a huge bandage type thing stuck on his forehead.  I've seen them before, but I didn't know what it was.  My husband, who was working from home due to his cough, told me it was an ice pack of sorts.  It can be stuck anywhere on the body that needs some icing. 

As I took turns tending to my boys, I was worried about the flu.  When our son's fever wasn't reducing, we knew it was time to head to the hospital.  While the sound of going to the hospital used to seem like an overreaction, I have learned it is just what you do in Japan.  People don't typically have a family doctor that they call when their child has a fever.  Instead, the parent takes their child (or themselves) to the hospital where they see a generalist. 

My husband took himself and our son to the hospital.  Since I am the only healthy person left in our household, and the only person who doesn't speak Japanese, I decided it was best for me to just stay at home.  I would only get in the way, needing translation and handholding, and I didn't need to expose myself to the germs of the hospital. 

When they came home, they arrived with 8 prescriptions.  Eight.  Each item was for a single symptom.  My son had three - a cough suppressant, a fever reducer only to be used if his fever hit 38.5°C/101.3°F, and a set of patches in case his breathing became labored.  My husband had these and a couple more for additional symptoms.  It used to bother me to get a huge stack of pills from the pharmacy, but my husband appreciates the small pill sizes.  The 8 prescriptions cost less than ¥1000 ($9)!  The price of medicine always floors me here.

I'm happy to report that they don't have the flu (they were tested for it), but they do have nasty colds.  I'm just hoping they both get better as soon as possible.