The family that sprays together stays together

Going back to work after spending a lot of time off during the holidays is always rough. Just as I grow accustomed to spending days on end at home with my family I’m uprooted from my comfortable nest to return to the daily routine of commuting to my workday life at the office.

It’s no coincidence that by late January each year I’m always getting an itch to start planning our next vacation so I can spend more time with the family. For the last couple years though, unexpected events have always intervened giving me plenty of time with my family early in the year.

Late Sunday night Laney started having problems keeping her food down. She’d just been to an event at a public library the previous day with numerous other children so the chances she’d picked something up were not unexpected. Still, we assumed it would probably just be a quick-hitting stomach bug (as most stomach bugs tend to be.) And by Tuesday that appeared to be the case. Laney was showing numerous signs of feeling better and seemed to be on the rebound.

Things shifted in a big way on Wednesday morning though. Laney started having more problems and I awoke to find that I too was striken by the bug. Too sick to move I spent half the day on our bathroom floor. When I was feeling “better” I finally moved back to our bed. Holly checked in on me periodically throughout the day, but I told her to just focus on Laney. In between my own waves of sickness, I’d get the occasional updates on what was going on elsewhere in the house. I was relieved to hear that Jessica was being evacuated to my mother’s house for the duration of the bug. Hopefully she wasn’t carrying it already.

Naturally Holly was the next domino to fall. Thursday morning Holly awoke to the misery I’d endured the day before. I was feeling marginally better, but exceedingly weak after having lost over 5 pounds in 24 hours so I was in no condition to take care of both her and Laney. Holly’s mom answered the call and came over to help out.

Friday we all started to feel a bit better although we were obviously very weak. Holly began opening windows and cleaning/detoxing everything in sight. Laney had more of a spring in her step and seemed to be showing hints of her old spirit. I even ate my first “meal” in 3 days – a piece of toast and a cup of applesauce. What’s sad is I didn’t even really want it.

Saturday morning (my birthday) I stepped on the scales to find I was down 10 pounds from my normal weight. Ten pounds in 72 hours. I haven’t weighed this little since I was in college. I guess this would be considered a grand birthday present by some people. Granted, much of it will go right back on once I get completely re-hydrated and start eating regularly again.

Holly’s dad called early Saturday morning to let us know that Holly’s mom was now down with the virus. It wasn’t unexpected (it comes with the motherly duties territory) but we still hated it for her immensely after all she’d done to help. We also felt bad for her dad as he was basically a ‘sick man walking’ at this point . . . and his birthday is in just a few days as well. Our birthday present to him I suppose.

Around our house we were all starting to feel close to normal again. We got outside briefly on midday Saturday because it was just too beautiful NOT to go outside for a bit. I even picked up some egg drop soup as we enjoyed our first semi-real meals in days (not quite the lobster or rib dinner I'd originally envisioned for my birthday meal earlier in the week.) Invigorated by the infusion of calories we all were feeling much better now. Everything seemed to finally be coming to a conclusion as we hoped to be reunited with Jessica the next day.

Unfortunately, Laney has once again had another bout after nausea (her first in a couple days) so now we don’t know what to think. Holly and I both feel like we’re past the worst of it, but seeing Laney continue to relapse after periods of resurgence makes you question if this is ever going to end. The fact that we haven’t seen our baby for several days also makes it that much worse. You want to see her, but you don’t want her to have to endure this either. So while I miss her VERY much, I can wait a couple more days if I have to.

I do know this though. I can NEVER wind down as well I can curled up next to my dog on the couch each night. Tucker, I miss you buddy.

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