A few weeks ago we had some sort of totally random flu bug hit our house that decided to make its way through our entire family. Although its not something I would ever care to experience again, looking back at it now…It does seem pretty funny. đ So I thought I would record it here on the ol’ blog.
It actually started the DAY we were supposed to take off for our big Yellowstone trip we’d been planning for months. Adam woke up feeling a little “off” and promptly went and layed down. So that left all the packing, lifting, and moving everything out to the car to me – as well as getting 4 kids fed, dressed and ready to go. Needless to say it was a little stressful getting out the door. It didn’t help either when my brother called and informed me he was canceling his cell phone plan (which I happened to be on). So that left me scrambling all morning to try to get that figured out so that I wouldn’t lose my phone number that all my kids emergency contacts were on, bills, and legal papers had on them. Yikes. Luckily Adam was kind enough to look into that for me though while he rested in bed. And we ended up getting it all worked out before my number was lost.
The whole way up to Yellowstone though Adam had these “sulfur burps” that were the grossest smelling things EVER to hit the air. He tried rolling down the window and burping outside – but if any of us got a whiff of the burp – we imagined certain death would follow. They were BAD. But we made it up to Yellowstone and got Adam situated in bed while the kids and I brought in all our bags and luggage. Adam spent the rest of the 5 day vacation resting mostly, and would feel better one day only to be hit again the day after. It seemed to be the strangest bug.
We didn’t think too much about it though until about a week after getting home from our Yellowstone trip Harry came down one morning saying he didn’t feel good and thought he was going to throw up. Sure enough about 30 minutes later he lost his breakfast and ended up staying home from school and recovering over the weekend. Then on Monday Dawson got sick and threw up and then by Tuesday Branson, Adalynn and I also came down with it.
Boy was that day ever a joke. Adam had gone into work in the carpool van and when I woke up I was so weak and nauseous that I couldn’t even move. I tried 3 or 4 times to go and make Adalynn a bottle in the kitchen and help get Harry off to school and every time I tried I ended up crawling to the kitchen and then would have to run to the bathroom to throw up or have a diarrhea episode, or BOTH. It was SO not fun. And I knew I would be pretty much good for nothing as far as taking care of kids that day. Especially sick ones. Branson and Adalynn were also down for the count and so I couldn’t even help them in their hour of need. Poor Adalynn had completely thrown up all over herself and her bed, and then she again threw up all over my bed and I couldn’t even get up enough energy to clean her or her bed or my bed up. And Branson had thrown up several times during all this as well. So we all just layed in soiled beds. I literally felt like I wanted to die. We were all just so miserable.
I texted Adam to let him know about the situation and he immediately went to work to figure out a way to get home to help us – but in the end the only thing he could figure out was to take a taxi home from Traverse Mountain which meant he didn’t get home until around 11. We were SO happy to see him though and he got right to work taking care of us all by stripping all the beds, putting me in a hot bath with Adalynn, washing all our throw up clothes and blankets, and getting us all sprite and crackers. It sure was a crazy day of being sick.
The next day we all felt MUCH better though and Brans and Adalynn seemed to be back to their normal selves. I was feeling better myself but was still very weak and was having constant diarrhea. But I was just happy the nausea was mostly gone. By Wednesday morning I was feeling pretty good though and so with a kiss I sent Adam off on yet another business trip. This time to San Franscisco and Portland Oregon.
THAT ended up being a horrible mistake because that afternoon the flu came back to hit me AGAIN and I ended up spending the entire night throwing up and running for the toilet with constant diarrhea from about 4 pm to 11 pm. luckily Branson was still feeling good so I put him in charge of Adalynn and helping get his brothers dinner and then getting everyone ready for bed that night. I tried taking zofran to help with the nausea but even one sip of water would send me back to the bathroom to throw up. It was such a miserable night. Adam felt awful for not being able to come home and take care of me and he tried getting a babysitter to come in from the agency Adobe uses for their employees but they couldn’t find a single person available. I ended up calling my Mom to find out what she would do when she gets bad like I was and she suggested an enema that has anti nausea medication in it. But you need a prescription for it so I called my brother in law who is an ER doctor. But he reminded me that the nearest pharmacy was Provo and because it was so late – I didn’t want to call and have someone go and pick it up for me. So I decided to try swallowing another zofran and an anti diarrhea pill WITHOUT sipping water to see if I could keep them down that way. That seemed to do the trick and by 11:00 I finally was able to stop running for the bathroom. It was such a welcomed relief.
When I talked to Adam on Friday he said that he had rearranged his schedule to come home earlier but that he too was now feeling sick. Ahhhh! So he and I ended up sick together on Friday night with the kids trying to take care of us. It really was starting to get pretty funny. I felt lots better Saturday but then Adalynn threw up again. Noooo! So it really did feel like the flu that never ended. She had thrown up Tuesday, gone 3 days without any symptoms and then threw up again. We just had no idea when we were all safe to go out into public again.
Because of all this I ended up calling my brother because I had asked to take his kids while he was working the week of Thanksgiving (since his kids are usually down in Hurricane and we rarely get to see them). I was supposed to start watching them on Monday. But with all the flu going through our family the last thing I wanted to do was to pass it along to my nieces and nephew. So we ended up canceling me watching them which made me and the kids so sad. We had really been looking forward to some cousin time. đ
That ended up being a good thing though because I developed the sulfur burps and toots and had an owie tummy that Sunday (all 6 of us stayed home from church) and then Adalynn ended up throwing up once more a few days later and had several days of severe diarrhea, and Branson got the sulfur burps and missed school. It was just a CRAZY couple of weeks with the flu that never ended!
But with all trials there is ALWAYS something to be grateful for. Below are a couple of the blessings we saw while going through our two weeks of sick.
1) We were all HEALTHY and well by Thanksgiving and were able to enjoy a wonderful day with family. That was a HUGE blessing and I just was so grateful all the sick came before the holidays! I even felt well enough to go grocery shopping the Wednesday before Thanksgiving which allowed me to go and buy everything I needed for the big day! Tender Mercy right there.
2) We were really blessed by family and friends who came to our rescue and brought us in meals WITHOUT even being asked. On Saturday my Mother in Law stopped by and surprised us with a big pot of homemade chicken noodle soup and bread and then on Sunday my wonderful friend and neighbor Susan Millet surprised us in a scrumptious dinner of honey baked ham, mashed potatoes, candied yams, stuffing, and two different kinds of pie. We truly have the most amazing family and friends. How blessed we are.
3) Mommy got lots of Christmas shopping done online while she “rested” in bed in between spouts of running for the toilet and cleaning up kid throw up.
4) Attending church this past Sunday seemed even more sweeter than usual after missing it due to all our sick.
So that is our flu that never ended story. We seem to be all over it now though and are doing well with the exception of Adam who had nasal surgery yesterday to open up his airways in his nose. He’s in a lot of pain but seems to be healing exceptionally fast. We truly are so blessed and have much to be grateful for this Thanksgiving season!