By Amy S.
We did pretty well all winter. While other children were dropping like flies, we made it through relatively unscathed. And then came March. First, stomach flu. The only good news about the stomach flu -- or so we thought -- was that at least it was behind us, we wouldn't have to worry about it again. Then three weeks ago, a mysterious fever/rash virus came along and resulted in a complete week of missed day care and work.
And now, the stomach flu, part deux. It was worse this time. She prayed to the trashcan every 15-30 minutes from 7 p.m. one night through 10 a.m. the next, and a few more times after that. This was most certainly the rotovirus -- the very one that savaged its way through the family when Olivia was an infant. Steve and I are skittish to say the least. We could be its next victim.
Undoubtedly, the worst part was following the doctor's instructions. Essentially she said to "starve" the virus until Olivia had stopped vomiting for two hours. She vomited for more than 12 hours -- so she was incredibly thirsty. When we finally were "in the clear" to start giving her liquids, the doctor said to give her a teaspoon of liquid every 10 minutes. As far as Olivia was concerned, we were torturing her. Of course, no explanation of why she couldn't have more to drink was going to work for a two-and-a-half year old. Thankfully, she kept most of it down and we were finally able to offer her a true drink.
There's nothing worse than helplessly watching your child throw up over and over. The stomach flu should be listed as one of the levels of hell. Even as Olivia recovers, we are cranky from lack of sleep and the dread of knowing we may be next. (My husband dilligently lines the trashcan near our bed with a plastic bag each time the stomach flu hits Olivia -- just in case one of us succumbs to its typically middle-of-the-night arrival.)
Plus, we've been watching the stinkin' 1984-produced CareBear cartoon videos over and over. Now we know why they throw them in for free when you buy CareBears -- because they're really, really bad. But for whatever reason, Olivia adores them. Bad storylines and all.
Has your household been bitten by the stomach flu this season?
haha...It is so useful imformation for us to read...gogo..
Posted by: christian louboutin | October 28, 2010 at 04:21 AM
shame you can not enjoy being sick. sorry for bad luck you have, it happened to me a very bad time.
Posted by: soft cialis | June 21, 2010 at 11:08 PM
Oh yeah we had it real bad. My husband one night was sick when my Aunt was visiting. He went into the downstairs bathroom and proceeded to christen it from both ends. When he told me he was sick, all I could do was yell at him as to why the hell he had to go and do it in the main bathroom that everyone uses instead of staying in our bedroom bath, which is officially known as "The Boys Bathroom" since he is the only man in our house and the only one who uses this bathroom for the most part. I was freaking that he had now contaminated the place and was worried that my 70 year old Aunt was going to get sick. He was ticked at me because I wasn't more concerned but all I could think about was containing germs.
He just didn't seem to understand that there is NOTHING worse than kids who are throwing up and have diarrhea than ME having both of those things and still having to take care of everyone else.
After two days and a whole bottle of Clorox Clean-Up sprayed throughout my house he felt better. We made it through the majority of the week with no one getting sick. I thought we were home free until one night out of the blue our oldest threw up and continued to do so for the whole following day, she couldn't even keep a sip of water down. That same day I was feeling queasy but was determined not to get sick. I was drinking wine, trying to kill the germs. That night she slept with me so I could keep an eye on her and in the middle of the night I woke up - the bathroom called. That was it, I barfed like crazy, then came the other. My nether-regions hurt so bad by morning that I was crying in agony. I could barely make it out of bed to say goodbye to my other child before she went to school. I was frantic that if she got sick at school that day, I wouldn't even be able to get out of bed to go get her. My other daughter and I had a lovely bonding experience spending the entire day in bed sleeping. She luckily was feeling better and by the end of that day, I was doing better too. My youngest never got the full blown version. To this day my dh can't live down the wrath of that bug he gave us.
Posted by: CreativeGirl | May 31, 2005 at 09:52 PM
Ditto to MsSysphus! No flu, but the CB videos are almost worse!
Posted by: tami | May 30, 2005 at 09:24 PM
My three year old, Bella, had it pretty bad this winter and we were all miserable for her. Sick for hours and hours, no understanding of why she was sick and the total exhaustion that hits when you are that sick for that long is something I don't ever want to see one of my kids go through again.
BTW, all of my kids looove those atrocious videos too. Will I be aging myself to say that I remember loving the cartoon when I was about that age?
Posted by: Cori | May 28, 2005 at 07:02 PM
No, but we've been bitten by those stinkin' videos :D
Posted by: MsSysphus | May 28, 2005 at 05:27 PM