Ah yes– having survived the great upper respiratory infection of February 2009, we are now confronted with quite a stomach flu. Kids at school are dropping like flies, including little Hank, Elias's peer, who puked in the hall two weeks ago just as his daddy was dropping him off. I would say he was the first ominous suggestion that we were in for it. Then there was Isaac's report early in the week that this little guy Sohan (the tiniest orange belt you'll ever meet), threw up in gym and then three more times in the bathroom. And Isaac got to see the barf! And told me all the details, which I will spare you. Then there was the glassy-eyed little girl led through the crowded halls by a teacher calling, "102.7! 102.7!" (Modern-day leper bell?)
But what can you do? Go on with life, pray, and hope that you will be spared. On Monday I spent the afternoon feeling horrible. Went to my health & wellness class feeling nauseated and wondering whether I would have to go home and barf, but didn't. On Tuesday morning I continued to feel bad, which was poor timing because I had the work-out of my life scheduled! I've been working out with a trainer since about September ( ten-week program that I repeated) and planned to attend the strength class she was teaching, which we would then follow with more private training. Ugh. But I was determined not to wimp out, took a double EmergenC and felt half-way decent. (I had a nagging fear that I was ill due to sinning with this big waffle the previous day.) Pure hell… thumping music, skinny people with make-up on, wearing cute outfits, and no place for me except the very front row! So I got to watch myself in my lame t-shirt, no make-up, uncoordinated non-skinny glory front and center! But I got through it without actually dying, which would not have been the case six months ago. And after that, actually felt non-sick, which bolstered my theory about the waffle.
All seemed completely normal for a few days, although Elias was sleeping uncommonly badly. One night, up from midnight to three. The next night, sleeping until four am and then starting the day with gusto. He didn't seem sick, though, just incredibly annoying and restless. Well, until yesterday morning, which he opened with a vomit between us in bed. Obviously no school for him! And I kept Isaac home too, for observation and also because I didn't want to put sir-barfs-a-lot into the car in that condition. He threw up all day, keeping nothing down whatsoever. Lands sakes, the bedding, the towels, the jammies, the laundry! Ack! The Ovaltine geyser! Last night he stopped the vomit and began the pooping and fever. Today, seems to be better, lying around right now watching Caillou while sporting an impressive dragon costume.
Isaac looked a little wan yesterday and seemed subdued, but ate well and maintained his normal charisma. This morning he's at a birthday party at a jumping place, with lots of inflated things to jump in, and so will be ingesting junk food and shaking it vigorously. One hopes that this will be okay. I'm pleased that, because Elias needs me at home, I didn't have to attend this party. It gives me a headache just to think about it.
One thing that I've noticed lately is that Isaac and Elias have totally different sick-kid personalities. Elias will maintain he's fine, even to the point of getting angry about it "Mommy! I FINE!" even when he has a fever of 102 and a double ear infection. Isaac will demand to be taken to the Emergency Room if he skins his knee. However, Isaac actually does get sicker and more worrisome, due to his history of hospitalization (see March 06) and his asthma. Over President's Day weekend, Isaac, Ben and Pa (Ben's dad) went on a boy's weekend to NYC. They had lots of fun, although from the anxious maternal vantage point it seemed like the fun involved walking all over New York in a chill wind with no hat on. That was the same weekend that Elias was so sick, so I suppose Isaac was gestating it himself all the while.
In any case, he came home and promptly got deathly ill. He freaked me out for several hours one day that week, by curling up into a ball, going gray and pale while also smoldering hot and beset by shallow breathing. I was poised to take him to the hospital at any moment, while also balancing the need of a sick child to sleep it off and not go to the den of all horrible illness to sit and wait for three hours and get exposed to everything in town. He got through what seemed to be the immediate crise. But a few days later I ended up taking him in to the Emergency Room anyway. Annoyingly, it wasn't so much an emergency, just urgent and Sunday, and the brilliant urgent care center is closed on SUnday! Smart! There after waiting with all the sick kids in town for three hours, Isaac was found to have a double ear infection and wheezy inflamed lungs, such that he needed immediate oral steroids and ten days of antibiotics.
This was a snowy time also, which led me to compare my situation (trapped in the house with sick children for ten solid days) to the Shackleton Adventure. Sure, Shackleton had some challenges of his own, but he didn't have Isaac on steroids!
Anyway, he's been seeming very healthy lately. One can only wait and see as to whether the stomach flu will strike our household again.