Germs Make Me Sick!

That's the title to the last Reading Rainbow DVD we watched.  It was on purpose; it seems we have been dealing with sickness for the last month nearly constantly.  We did have a little break to catch up on laundry and go up north to hunt and visit family.  That was good, and we'll post pics of that some other time.

For now, want to see some photos of our sickies?  Nothing gross.  We started the journey with a round of the stomach flu.  Lovely, I know.  Sophia started throwing up on Monday and kept it up until Wednesday.  Because she had been throwing up that long, along with other ailments like a fever, I thought we should bring her to see the doctor.  Now, I am notorious for deciding wrongly when to seek medical attention (I am also notorious for guessing the wrong gender of all my children but one).  But on Wednesday morning, I called to see if we could get in with our regular doctor, whom I respect and like very much.  She was only working until noon, but could fit us in at 10:40am.  So I hustled the kids to the car, making sure Sophia had a bowl, just in case.  Well, on the way there, Mari said she didn't feel good.  A minute later, she threw up all over herself and the van.  Right after she was done, Joshy threw up all over the library book he was reading.  Meanwhile, Sophia, the only one with a bowl, says, "I'm not throwing up, Mama.  I feel fine!"  So all the kids are wailing and we are a mile from the clinic.  I elected not to stop since I had nothing to clean up with anyway and we were so close to help.

I pulled up the van to the door of the clinic, left the kids outside, and ran up to the front desk asking for help and briefly explaining the situation.  The receptionist replied, "Um, do you have an appointment?"  Lovely.  I just told her I have multiple crying, sick kids in the car and I need some help and that's how she replied.  Lord, give me grace!  I assured her I did, and she then got me some towels and plastic bags with the instructions to not return any of them.

When I got back out, Eric had arrived and was assessing the situation.  We decided he should take Mari to his brother's house just down the road to clean her up and I would take the others.  I go to get Ruthie and she was just covered in poop.  At this point, what can you do but laugh, pray out loud, and tell the kids we will all find this funny someday.

During the appointment, sure enough, Sophia was fine and dandy, with not even a fever.  Lydia, however, fell and bonked into a metal doorframe and came away with a nice goose egg.  Ruthie was screaming from having to be stripped down and wiped up.  Joshy was feeling better and thought he threw up only because how gross it was to have someone throw up next to him.

Finally, after Eric borrowed some clothes, cleaned the van, and bought a new carseat, he met us back at the clinic and we went home.  He thought he would come home too, but I said no, go back to work, we will be fine.  But on the way back home, Lydia threw up.  She had a little plastic throw up bag that the doctor had handed out to everyone, but she carefully held it away as to not get it dirty and threw up all over her lap and car seat instead.  I had to pull over to calm her down and try to clean up up with burp rags (the only thing I had left in the car to clean her up with).  While stopped, Mari threw up.  So I called Eric and said, yeah, it would be great if he could come home.  He spent the rest of his afternoon cleaning the car (again!) and helping sick little ones.

---this post was just a draft, but in order to include it for memory sake, I am posting it, even though I didn't finish writing it.  The rest of the story is just that after the tummy bug, we all got colds that led to family pink-eye.  The last photos are of the girls getting eye drops.