Sickness and adventures with cold

I have to throw it right out there, I am so bad with people being sick. I tend to not be one to go/take kids to the doctor but that doesn't mean I am not constantly stressing and second guessing myself. I don't worry so much about my three year old, although she was quite ill this last weekend and she has a lingering cough. On Sunday all she did was lay around with hooded eyes and sleep but she is a healthy girl and she is much better. My son is now coming down with it and is constantly choking on snot. He is fine if he decides to open his mouth to breath but this is after he has several grunts and other episodes of not breathing. In other regards it really looks like a typical viral infection, I just pray that I have helped him be healthy enough that he will fight this off easily and not end up with other complications, he is still so young.
In other news it is cold here. Well actually today it got above zero but it has been cold here. We were set to drive home from my parents yesterday even though it was the balmy temperature of -17F with -50 windchill. You don't really think about how quickly cold can kill but yesterday offered a good example. I was following my mom into town as she was leaving for work at the same time. She had left a couple minutes earlier and I caught up with her on the outskirts of town. I noticed that she had a weird shadow around her tire and as I got closer I realized it was very flat. I started honking at her like crazy but she didn't seem to notice (whimpy Honda Civic honk!). I finally kept signally and pulled over and she did too. Be that point the wheel had shredded and come off the rim! I got out to talk to her for only a minute or two and was freezing immediately. Fortunately my dad and husband dealt with the tire and I got to wait inside, but I started to think. Should I really be driving 350 miles with my kids, what if something happens? But what if tomorrow is worse. Worse yet I had gone to fill the cat feeders and had run out of catfood so I was positive they were out of food (and I was right). We did end up making the trip and had no trouble, but it makes you stop and appreciate the forces of nature!