Last night was probably the worst night in our career as parents. I realize that many of you have gone through this, and I say kudos to you because it truly, truly sucked. Sorry for the language, but it's accurate. You'll have to indulge me as I write about it because my blog is my journal.
It all started on Tuesday night. I got off the phone with a friend and WHAM! was sick to my stomach. It gave no warning. I threw up all night, but by morning was fine, just listless. I figured it was some kind of food poisoning because I had no fever, no chills, and it went away pretty quick considering how violently ill it made me.
Wednesday was fine, which was good because I had a bunch of things to get done for our Primary Activity that night and was able to go and feel okay, though still energy-less. I ate a piece of pizza there, which was my first meal of the day! Probably not the best choice, but it turned out fine.
Thursday was fine. My sister, Katie, and her boyfriend Adam came up, and we all went to Asian Star for dinner. We probably picked the most crowded restaurant in Salt Lake for dinner on New Year's Eve, but we stayed because one of Jeremy's work clients had given him a $75 gift card, and I wanted Katie to try sushi. For the record, she hated it. :) Luckily, they have a delicious Chinese food menu there, too. Meredith ate a California roll, some lettuce wrap, and a fortune cookie. She was fine, other than being angry that we were at a restaurant for two hours!!!
On the way home, we stopped by a friend's house to say hello. Meredith was eating chips and cookies while there and acting normal, but all of a sudden she just threw up. Oh well, I thought, she's probably eaten too much, or she was just gagging on something. Nope. When we took her home about 9 to go to bed, she projectile vomited all over me. I just sat there. I told Jeremy, "I don't know what to do!" and he just said to wait and calm down, then I would know. It was so sad! Thus started the ginormous pile of laundry I'm working my way through today! Meredith, as I suspect most kids do, gets all weirded out when she's puking. She wants to walk around or lay down while she's in the act, and it gets everywhere! We basically just had to lay towels down everywhere. Eventually, she got so exhausted she just collapsed to her knees each time. She was throwing up every 10 to 15 minutes there for a while. Having just gone through that two nights earlier, I had to much empathy for her.
We had her sleep in our bed that night. She would usually start crying before throwing up, so we'd just sit her up, give her a towel, let her puke, then lay her back down. She was so exhausted. She was sick every hour at least. By morning, I was getting freaked out about dehydration. I went and re-read all my friends' blog posts about their children's experiences getting IV's for being dehydrated, and I was near panicking. She looked like a ghost! Luckily, there was no diarhhea, and she didn't have a fever. We gave her a sippy in the middle of the night, which she clung to like lifewater. I couldn't pry it away from her as she gulped it down, and of course it all came back up. I got up early and went to Harmons to get some Pedialyte and Gatorade. When the cashier said "Sick kids, huh?" I almost lost it. I held in the tears until I left the store, then bawled all the way home.
I'm thankful to my wonderful mom for being there for me (by phone) when I got home. Jeremy had gotten in the shower, and I was losing it. She helped me calm down and realize that things were going to be okay. She could hear Meredith chattering in the background and assure me that she was probably just fine.
What really irks me is that I called the on-call doctor at our Ped's office several times (his answering service paged him for me) but he NEVER CALLED ME BACK! I would have gotten more agressive with this, but Meredith started perking up really fast around 9 this morning. She ate some noodles and broth and drank a bunch and kept it down. Phew! She is still sleeping it off this afternoon after 4 hours of napping. Guess I'd better go wake her up...
Friday, January 1, 2010
Vomit.
Scribbled by Kelly at 3:54 PM
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11 Talk to me!:
Wow, I am so sorry. I completely know how you feel. Especially when you are so exhausted it's so hard to keep the emotions and rational thinking in check to focus on what to do. It sounds like you totally did everything right.
Just from my experience when Camberlyn needed an IV I was so mad at myself, because the doctors had always told us to stay away from Gatorade as a first choice because of the sugar content, however, if your child is to the point of dehydration I realized a little too late that I should give them whatever they want to drink and can keep down. Who cares about sugar when she is dehydrated! She wouldn't drink pedialyte, water, propel, broth or anything, I tried Gatorade and by then it was too late. So way to go. I hope you are all on the mend.
OH yeah, what kind of on-call doctor is that if they don't call you back? I would have been so MAD!
I am so sorry you had to go through this. First as the victim then second as the mom. I think it's harder to go through as the mom. I'm so glad M is doing better and that it didn't last any longer then it did. Those stomach bugs can be so hard on little ones. Yay that you all survived round one. (I hate to say it, but you'll probably have a few more nights like that before she's grown.)
I'm so sorry for you and her! This is probably the hardest thing to deal with... at least for us too. Carter had something bad in the spring. It was every few minutes like this too. He finally got to the point that he had no wet diapers after a whole day, his eyes where hollow and sunken in and he couldn't walk. Dr Vierra had us take him into PCMC and get an IV. We were there all night long as the ER doc did tests because it looked like a serious problem where the bowel inverts itself... anyway, tests came back fine, we drove home dead at 6AM and got about an hour of sleep... then Owen woke up sick. The whole next week was nothing but throw up and laundry. We all got it. I hope you and Jeremy stay healthy so you can take care of her and nurse her back to health! Happy Laundry to you. :)
I'm sorry you had to go through this. Poor Meredith and you. I feel so bad, but I love you!!! Thanks for treating us to Sushi, ADAM LOVED IT!
You poor thing. The first time this happens is the worst. You really have no idea what to do and you worry, worry, worry. I really hate stomach bugs and wish they wouldn't pick on little toddlers who have no idea what is happening. I was hoping you wouldn't have to deal with this until she was at least old enough to understand to go to the bathroom. What a horrible way to start the new year. I hope she is feeling better now.
ohhh rough night- I hear you- My Maddie was in our bed throwing up last night too- worst night ever
I am so sorry! I would definitely write a letter to the pediatrician's office and explain what happened. That is not cool. I am glad she is feeling better.
Oh I have so much more empathy for parents with sick children since we recently went through this. It's horrible! There is so much more stress when it's your kid sick than yourself. I am so thankful we made it to 3 years before we dealt with it, but the laundry, the stress it is all too much. I hope I handle the next time better than I did the first. The problem was....it was nearly every night for 3 weeks. It was horrible! I hope Meredith starts feeling better soon! Good luck!
No fun, I'm glad everyone's feeling better. Cute hats, we could have lots of fun together :)
Isn't it amazing what you can live through? You will be able to look back and this and realize if you made it through that, you can make it through just about anything :) Sick kids are so very hard and scary. Pat yourself on the back for getting through it :)
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