Water in the River: Virusageddon 2011

Uncle Ed, Leif and Sammy Dog all cuddle up in the sunroom to chat and read books.

You might have been thinking that we've fallen off the face of the Earth of late.

We have not, but it did kinda seem that way.

A few weekends ago, we had a big party - a Bull and Oyster Roast - that functioned as several things, several birthday parties, wishing Uncle Marcos' Adieu (he's off to Basic Training) and of course, The Annual Bull and Oyster Roast. It was a fine time, with lots of good food.

The following evening, though, began a most unrighteous few weeks in which the entire household (sans Susan) became rather violently ill with the most vicious stomach flu I've ever had or seen. I became sick first (I lost 12+ pounds in 5 hours if that tells you anything!), then a day or so later, Granddad had it, then Jason..and then my Leify. Tummies still aren't running at full capacity, and Leify is still sick (although not contagious!) even now, over two weeks later. Or is it three? I dunno, I lost count.

When Leif became sick, he started becoming dehydrated very quickly. He couldn't keep anything down - ginger tea, Pedialyte, water - it all came back up. He was laying in the bathroom, snuggled in towels by the shower because as soon as he left the bathroom, he started up again with the vomiting. It was constant.

That night, I took him to the Dr. (the places where they have late hours and are open holidays) to see if they could give him an IV because he was showing so many signs of dehydration (and we've been there, done that with him, with no wish to do it again!) They said they didn't do "Pediatric Fluids" meaning they don't give kids IVs there, so they called ahead to the ER, and told us we'd be seen right away, the Dr. was expecting us.

Long story short, we sat in the ER for over two hours (and this in the middle of the night) - which is not fun for a vomiting child with diarhhea. They wouldn't give him any water (policy) even though he was asking for it repeatedly. I finally found a machine with bottled water and he took several big gulps. When it hadn't come back up five minutes later, we were outta there.

So, sometime around 1am, I was doing laundry and giving Leif a bath before putting him to bed.

In 27 hours (straight, with the exception of around 2 hours where I was sleeping), I did over 20 loads of laundry: 2 beds (multiple times each), every towel in sight, loads of clothes, etc. etc. because little guys don't know quite how to get to the toilet (or a container of some sort, at least!) when they're sick at the age of 4. Who knew?

Anyway, I've dubbed the past few weeks "Virusageddon 2011" for obvious reasons. Ugh.

But, it seems to be winding down now, so on to better things, right?

This was before Leif got sick. He saw the dog snuggled up in the corner by the stove, and cuddled up next to him. They both napped for over an hour there together!