Sick, sick, sick (and possibly TMI!)

I’d like to think that we are a pretty healthy family. My kids have never really been sick other than the odd cold or stuffy nose. I attribute this to the fact that I am a total hermit and don’t get out much, as well as being a stay at home mom. It was a little surprising that Bee didn’t feel well and took a nap on the couch in the evening. Little did I know what I would be in for over the next 24hrs.

Bee was in and out of the bathroom most of the night, and I had resolved to get up with the girls so that he could sleep in and recover a bit. However, it hit me the next morning. I lasted about an hour on my own before needing to wake him up since I was spending most of my time in the bathroom. I have not been that sick in a very very long time. I had a piece of toast and a small cup of tea for breakfast (Mom’s old standby!) and not 30 mins later, my stomach decided to it did not want food in it. For the rest of the day, I could not even keep water down and pretty much spent the entire day on the couch under my duvet. Bee spent most of his time on the other couch and taking care of the kids even though he felt pretty lousy too. By 5pm, after 10 hours of vomiting and diarrhea I decided to call the nurse (one of the many awesome features of free health care! Saves me from a trip to the clinic or ER) to see if she could give me any advice. Her recommendation was to drink a tablespoon of water every 5 mins for 4 hrs to try to get me rehydrated. By this time, I was feeling weak, dizzy and had a pounding headache. If after the 4 hrs the water stayed down I could increase the amount of water. Well, I cheated and had Jell-O and may I just say that it never tasted so good! It was so nice to put something with flavor inside my mouth and I just hoped that it would stay there. Luckily for me, by that point the worst of it was over. I spent most of the evening sipping water, trying to rid myself of the pounding headache.

Bee and I went to bed very early, right after the girls around 8:30pm. I promptly fell asleep. Of course, that’s way too early for me so I was up at 2am watching old comedy reruns and sipping on water and eating saltines, once again trying to get rid of the headache. It seems to come and go, I assume with my levels of hydration? Bee got up with the girls this morning to let me get some rest and has decided to stay home from work tomorrow (he starts his days shifts) to make sure that we both get enough rest.

I was very happy to make it through the night without further incident and was so excited to eat breakfast this morning. A piece of toast! A piece of heaven. I also tried to have a cup of tea since I was wondering if the headache was due to lack of caffeine, (not having had my customary 2 or 3 coffees and as many cups of tea) but I was only able to drink about half of it. I feel almost better today save for a lingering upset stomach, some weakness and sore muscles. I am trying to get the house tidied since with both of us out of commission yesterday and the girls getting whatever they wanted, the house looked like a tornado ripped through it.

Might I also add that I have the best daughters ever. They spent most of the day yesterday playing quietly in the living room while we rested. I had always wondered what would happen if both of us got sick at the same time, how would we manage to take care of the girls? Lucky for us we were not both sick at the same time, since Bee was already over the worst of it when I got hit with it. But it was very hard for me to just rest on the couch while he took care of all the diapering, feeding and playing. It is definitely not something I want to get again anytime soon.