Sunday, November 14, 2010

One Stomach Flu Away From My Goal Weight

I'm just going to warn you now, I'm going to complain in this post and I'm going to do it without any attempt to look on the bright side because as far as I can tell, there was absolutely no bright side to my day yesterday.

I woke up 7 a.m. when Clairebear started crying up in her room. She's been a little off the past few days. Still super happy the majority of the time, but her happiness is punctuated with short bursts of crying and spitting up (and throwing up, but just that one time). As soon as I sat up in bed, I knew I didn't feel well, but I've been working so late each night that JP has been getting up with the kids every morning and I didn't think he'd be very sympathetic to a request for another morning of sleeping in. Thirty minutes later, my stomach was clenched up and hurting, my body ached, and I had a splitting headache. I crawled back in bed, moaning my apologies, and he got up (I'm pretty sure he was glaring at me, but I felt too terrible to notice or care very much).

Because I haven't been really sick in years, I was confident that these yucky feelings would go away quickly, so I told him not to cancel his morning swim lesson. Oh, I'll be fine, I said, it's only an hour. But very much no. Within 10 minutes of him leaving, I was in the bathroom throwing up over and over again with Landon standing behind me keeping up a steady stream of one-sided conversation, "Mommy, why are you trying to go potty backwards? Mommy why are you sitting on the floor? Mommy, can I have a yogurt? I really want a yogurt. Can I have milk? Mommy, why are you laying on the ground?" Then Claire started crying from the living room and I couldn't stand up without falling back down and Landon started to get mad that he couldn't have a yogurt (and every time he said the word yogurt it made me heave again, though I had nothing left in my stomach to give up). It was really quite awful. I tried calling JP even though I knew his cell phone would be in his swim bag on a bench far away from where he was coaching, so I just counted down the minutes, all 60 of them until he was coming home. Claire cried a lot, Landon cried a lot, and I lay on the tile floor crying a bit myself. He found me, 65 minutes later (yes, he was 5 minutes late and they were the longest 5 minutes of all the minutes combined), still on the bathroom floor. My whole body hurt and every time I tried to sit up the room would go black and I'd have to lay down again. It was so very bad.

Then, because I still hadn't learned anything about how this day was going to go, I told JP to go ahead and take Landon to his toddler friend's birthday party. Claire had just gone down for her nap and she always sleeps for at least 3 hours, so we'll be fine!, I said. I'll sleep, she'll sleep, you'll be home in 2 hours.

Claire woke up 40 minutes after he left. I carried a bottle upstairs, since there was no way I was going to risk carrying her down the stairs, and fed her through the bars of her crib. I was afraid I'd drop her if I tried to pick her up. I soon realized I'd left my cell phone downstairs, so I couldn't call JP to come home early, but in that moment, going back down and then up the stairs seemed harder than just sticking it out for another hour and a half. Probably the wrong decision, but I really didn't think I could walk that far.

The rest of the day involved me moaning, trying to eat 3 sips of chicken soup, throwing up several more times, blacking out twice, and spiking 102 fevers ever hour or so, between otherwise normal temperatures. Even small sips of water all came back up. I don't get sick often- in fact, I've only thrown up once in my life for non-alcohol-related reasons, and that was when I had the flu in 7th grade. I didn't know the warning signs so I ended up throwing up bright red spaghetti sauce all over my mom's new cream living room carpet. I figured out what was happening a little quicker this time, so at least I didn't make a mess. My body hurt all over and if I ever moved faster than a snail, my limbs would go numb and my vision would black out.

Landon of course picked yesterday to be the kind of toddler that he NEVER is- throwing multiple tantrums, refusing to do what we asked him, saying "No" to things- there were several times I just looked at him like "who are you?!" He spent a lot of time in his room. Claire was needy and never slept for more than 45 minutes at a time, though she kept her food down just fine and was usually in a pretty good mood when awake. JP didn't feel well himself; just a scratchy throat, but he was feeling quite sorry for himself (and, in my opinion, not nearly sympathetic enough to me) since I laid on the couch all day while he did everything around me. We had to cancel our plans to go to San Antonio to celebrate my grandpa's 81st birthday, which made me so sad, and I had to back out of a baby shower I was hosting today for a close friend.

All in all it just sucked. At 7 p.m. I gave up on attempting to eat or drink anything and took 4 ibuprofen (my body ached so much, it was like all my bones were hollowed out and filled with pain) and 2 prescription sleeping pills, and went to bed. I woke up at 6 this morning, feeling cautiously better. I just ate half a bagel and so far, so good. I really hope today is a better day.

P.S. Unrelated, but I can't have a post so entirely depressing. So behold the Biscuit in happier times:


17 comments:

  1. What a miserable day! Hope today is better and that no one else in your family catches what you had!

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  2. Hugs to you today. Just rest and recover. :)

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  3. Wow... sounds like the most miserable flu ever. I hope you feel better.

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  4. You poor thing! I hope you feel better soon - being sick with kids is the worst. Hugs to you all!

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  5. Aww that really sucks. I'm glad you're feeling a bit better now and hopefully everything will be back to normal soon.

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  6. Hope you feel better and the kids don't get it! I got hit hard by the nasty bug Thrusday night and 3 of the kids joined me friday. There better and I am slowly feeling better myself as long as the big kids don't get it. Today I must go attack the piles upon piles of laundry that I neglected while sick.

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  7. wow... that sounds truly awful... hope you're properly on the mend now! :-)

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  8. This happened to me my very first day of work at the firm (i.e., Orientation) 2 years ago. I threw up once before leaving home but my husband said I was just nervous (or so he thought until he got it 2 days later). I sat at a round table in the front of a huge ballroom, horrified as my vision completely whited out and I thought I would pass out. I was afraid to walk to the bathroom because I thought I would fall over!! I did manage to get to the bathroom in time after our first meeting, but then had to throw in the towel and go home. That was the first and only time I'd ever been that since since childhood!!! Hopefully for both of us we're done with it for good!

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  9. That is awful! We just got through a week of everyone being sick (though not as sick as you were) and it is so miserable. There is nothing you can do. Good opportunity for the kids to practice empathy, maybe? Didn't really work out that way for us. ;)

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  10. Holy cr@p that's a horrible day! Hope you're feeling better!

    Ash

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  11. Oh my. My stomach just aches hearing that story. I hope you feel better, that sounds like the worst day ever.

    Sending you virtual vitamin C and hugs!

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  12. I am so sorry! Stomach flu is no fun. I hope it passes quickly.

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  13. That is horrible. I felt sorry for myself because I had a cold yesterday. Thanks for reminding me that things could have been oh so much worse. Good lord.

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  14. HAHHAHA that's my favorite movie line ever!

    I'm glad you are feeling better. Being sick with a kid at home is one of my big parenting fears. Glad you all survived :)

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  15. Whilr I feel your pain (and I really, really do) I am relieved to know you are not a "mutant family" (my husband used to refer to any baby who SLEPT as "you know, one of those mutant babies."

    Babies get sick, mommies get sick (you are allowed ONE day to be sick-- that's it for mommies) daddies get sick, and the power goes out on Friday night of a three-day weekend! (Wait, surely I am not the only one this has happened to?)

    Sadly, the planets sometimes align wrong or the fates decide you are taking things for granted. You will recall that the sun usually shines quite brightly on your family: your "fat" would be my "amazingly slim;" you have the world's most parent-tolerant law firm; you have beautiful kids who SLEEP (I am redundant here, but it is because I am unabashedly jealous) and your juggling goes astoundingly well.

    And I can talk like this because I am far enough away that you can't throw a shoe at me!

    Get better soon-- you and everyone!

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  16. Ugh, so feeling your pain. I am so sorry. It hit here, too, Friday morning five minutes after my husband left to go play with the boys for the weekend. It was fast, though, so I hope yours is, too! So sorry!

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  17. I think we had the exact same weekend.... except I was all by my lonesome (good because I had no children to worry about feeding/keeping alive but bad because I had no JP to give me chicken noodle soup, haha!)

    I have been through hours of bootcamp and personal trainers that left me feeling in less pain that I felt on Saturday... it was unbelievable. I was convinced I had meningitis based on the pain in my neck alone... spent the day basically in a tshirt and underwear throwing covers on and off as I went from spiking fevers to chills.
    Then Sunday woke up and couldn't even swallow... the nurse at the minute clinic diagnosed me with an ear infection AND strep... because apparently I'm a toddler. THANK GOD no vomitting. I got some antiobiotics and I'm not 100% yet but I feel 8 gazillion times better today... thank goodness. I never get sick and I was absolutely miserable.

    It sucks that it ruined a weekend but glad that I didn't have to miss work... hope you're doing better now!

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