Sunday, March 23, 2014

In Not So Fun News..

Last time I felt like this we ended up like this...
I think we've avoided it this time...
There will be no What I Wore Sunday here today, since the flu has struck our house yet again, and I spent last night convincing Paul that I did not need to go to the ER (non-baby related. Thought I'd get that out there right away!).

It was close.  There were moments when I thought I was going to have to and was trying to imagine rousting the kids out of bed and getting them into the car, because there was no way I could drive at that point with the room swimming and voices sounding increasingly far off and faint.

The flu has hit our house (again) and oh what a not fun strain it is.

I'll spare you the details, but I lost 6 lbs yesterday and dehydration was a major worry about 9 pm last night when I started feeling like I was going to pass out.  I could only picture the disaster that me-who-was-afraid-to-leave-the-bathroom would be if I spent hours waiting in an ER.  There was nothing I could imagine in that moment that sounded worse.

I'm not a fan of being sick in the first trimester.  There's nothing I feel safe taking at this point in pregnancy any longer.  Especially not Tylenol.  This is one of the worst flu bugs I've ever experienced.  I feel like it rivals the great mystery virus of 2011 that landed me in the hospital with infectious disease for five days.

Paul came down with the same thing early this morning, which puts us in the not-so-fun position of having three kids who are up and ready to greet the day (bright eyed and bushy tailed) and two parents who would really, really like to stay in bed and pull the covers up to their ears.

The little people still expect food every few hours...
And while I imagine they'd be thrilled with rice cakes
and popsicles, I know I have to aim
a little bit higher...
We've been taking shifts.  Thankfully right now, with the fever and chills setting in again for me, he's feeling better and is taking care of the rowdy ones downstairs.

And while I haven't had solid food stay in my tummy for 24 hour, I'm managing some Popsicles and tiny sips of water, which is a huge, huge improvement over yesterday afternoon.

I did have a split second panic attack (delusion) upon seeing Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever trending on Facebook until I quickly checked twice to make sure it wasn't in Michigan (kidding... kind of...).

I just hope the kids don't get this, especially Mae and Patrick, who just wouldn't understand what was going on.

In totally unrelated news, this morning while Paul was stumbling around trying to find wipes, Patrick picked up a container or wipes and said "Here Daddy!" in a proud, clear little voice.  At 16 1/2 months he is our earliest talker by a year and a half.

Now back to figuring out how to make dinner when the thought of touching (or worse smelling!) food makes me want to run and hide in the bathroom.  And trying to be not-to-whiny and offering it up (fail?  Kind of fail?).  Somebody ought to make good use of this feeling!

6 comments:

  1. So sorry you're going through this! (It sounds as if it may be a stomach virus, rather than actual influenza, which is respiratory - am I right?) If so, it could be a norovirus or similar - nasty. We experienced this twice in the last two years when relatives of our SIL passed it on after visiting when they were still contagious. Not fun at all.

    Prayers being said that you and Paul recover quickly and the little ones don't get it.

    God bless!

    Marie

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  2. I often am swamped in the evening, and this is fast to prepare and does not need for me to have remembered to defrost anything.

    Secret Lemon Butter Chicken:

    frozen chicken breasts. Place in pan while oven pre-heats to 400. Add butter, lemon juice, salt, pepper and other favorite italian type seasoning. OR season with a single drop of sesame oil and some honey and soy sauce in place of the italian stuff.

    Place in 400 degree oven, close, set timer and sit down for 10 minutes.

    When it dings, put oven temp down to 350, set timer for an hour to hour and half-- this is very forgiving, take a nap.

    When that goes off, dump two or three bags of mixed frozen veggies into the pan, press into the liquid, and give it another 30 minutes.

    Feeds anyone who can eat.

    Serve as is or over rice.

    I've been sick during pregnancy and it is miserable. My sympathetic thoughts and some prayers for you!

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  3. Oh, feel so sorry for you! I know sometimes the only thing to settle my stomach when something like this happens is warm ginger ale, in small sips. Hope this is only a 12 or 24 hour bug, because there's no way to not stay in bed. I'll pray for you and Paul.
    God bless. ~ Bonnie

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  4. I'm so sorry to hear that you are sick... especially during the first trimester! Prayers coming your way! Having said that, I admit that I am still laughing over your post because of the Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever. It's not a funny thing at all on it's own, but my husband played a joke on my MIL last year when he convinced her that one of the grandkids had all of the symptoms. It was mean but pretty funny... and to see it pop up again here made me chuckle. :) Get well soon ALL of you!

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  5. Call for a Dominos pizza and be done with it. You probably have norovirus. If you are scrupulously, scrupulously clean - you could avoid passing it on. It's fecal-oral or vomit-oral transmission. Yes, that means Paul ingested some of your infected stool or vomit. Isn't marriage about sharing?? Don't use the kids' bathroom and don't let them use yours. Bleach, bleach, bleach! Hang in there!

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  6. Yuck! We've had two rounds of stomach flu so far this year (one courtesy of church and one daycare - kids our kids played with got sick the next day thing). The first round took out the four and five year olds, the second round the two year old, nine month old, my husband, and the five year old again ( which is how we know it was separate strains, since she got sick twice in the course of three weeks). It is easier with the older ones who can be given a bowl to sit on the couch with - all you can do with littles is pen them in an area that does not include carpet. Still can't believe I didn't get it, but both times all surfaces in the rooms where anyone got sick were thrown in the washer, bleached, or hosed down with Lysol spray, and the kids skin is still recovering from all the baths (plus my hands from water and bleach). If littles in diapers do get it, remember the virus will be in their stools ul to two weeks after they recover, so clip your nails short, wash thoroughly after duper changes with strong soap, and preferably change on a hard bleachable surface, or wash a fabric pad after any poop changes (unless everyone gets it, and spreading isn't a concern anymore). And stay away from elderly or immune compromised people until everyone is well for several days -that stuff can be deadly to them.

    ReplyDelete

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