Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Back from the (almost) dead

Sometimes we just can't catch a break. It's always something or one thing after another. The kids had been sick for a week or more, Logan a simple double-ear infection and Carter more serious to where we thought he might have pneumonia. We started to feel a bit better, although Carter was still throwing up about once a day due to coughing and drainage.

Early this morning, Logan woke up and threw up. On the drive to take Bill to work, he did not look good at all. On the drive home I had to pull over to let him be sick on the side of the road. Great.... Here we go again.

We got home and snuggled on the couch, Logan being able to make it to the bathroom to be sick most of the time rather than being sick on himself. Not too much later, I took a turn for the worst and was right there with him, rotating bathroom time. Right around lunch time, I was ill. Very ill. I was too weak to take care of the kids and didn't feel like I could safely carry Carter upstairs to change his diaper and clothes. I called Bill to come home. I had the car, so he had to figure out a way to get here quickly. Knowing this, I called one of my clients who had a canceled session to see if she would help me out. At this point it was scary. I couldn't take care of the boys and Carter needed to eat. I was too sick to nurse him. I was dizzy, my hands and wrists were going numb and I couldn't stand up straight. I was concerned enough that I called the advice nurse with the kids' Doctors office to ask them about swine flu and if there was anything we needed to do.

I had barely enough formula to make Carter a bottle and soon after that, Bill was home. He took over while I went upstairs and practically had a near-death experience. I stupidly never took my temperature and in retrospect, it was probably dangerously high as I was in and out of consciousness. I was severely dehydrated and couldn't keep any liquids down - no water, no juice, no Popsicles, nothing. It was as if I was living the wost days of hyperemisis all over again. And living through that twice with both pregnancies, I felt like this is the only reason why I was able to tough out this flu. One day compared to 18 months is a cake-walk. I think other people would have called Uncle long before.

I was so sick that I missed the call from the advice nurse and we were fortunate that the boys fared well. Carter wasn't even sick, laughing and playing, coughing occasionally. Logan only threw up a few times - a very mild case of the flu. I was the one on death's door. I don't think we had the swine flu, but definitely wanted to call and get some advice, just in case. I'll call back tomorrow even though we're recovering well.

After a few hours of battling flu-death, I was able to come back to life and work on getting rehydrated again. I'm sure Bill will be able to go back to work in the morning and we'll just lay low for a few days.

I've had enough of being sick for a while.

3 comments:

Joanna said...

OMG...Wow...That is horrible. I am so glad Bill was able to get there for you and the boys.

Glad y'all are recovering.

Anonymous said...

You more than likely had the "stomach flu" which is totally different from the influenza virus that includes the swine virus. The actual influenza takes several days to weeks to recover from and usually only children vomit from it. My son and I both had it over the winter and it was no fun. I would much rather have the "stomach flu" where it's gone after a day or 2 instead of the week+ we were sick. Influenza is like a cold magnified by 100.
Glad to hear you're on the mend.

Ashley said...

yikes. I wasn't sure about your FB comment. Glad you guys are ok-especially with the scare out there right now!