The Cycle of Sickness

Our son is pretty sick, so we're postponing our trip back back to DC from visiting family at Thanksgiving.  On the one hand that gives us more time with our family.  On the other hand, that also means another day of missing work due to illness. I'm beginning to wonder if life will ever be normal again.  I think that at least one person in our family has been sick since at least 2006 when we first let people touch our newborn son.  Since then, it has been transfered to my wife and me, then back to him.  As more kids came, the cycle became a little longer--there are now two more kids for the sickness to travel through.  Most recently, it was transfered back to him from his baby sister.  Medicine does not break the cycle.  One possible solution is to have more kids so that it takes longer for the sickness to get back to me.  Just kidding.  The cycle doesn't really go in order.  It is as unpredictable as a $.25 rubber ball that has been hurled against a random wall in a pitch black room.  As my older brother and I learned as boys, it is uncertain where it will ricochet next, but it is certain to hit you at some point.  Moreover, the end of one person's illness typically overlaps with the beginning of the next person's illness, meaning that even when I am well there are kids needing 24-hour attention and sometimes I have to take the night shift.  I'm currently in the market for other solutions.