Peaceful Slumber

There is nothing as terrifying as being woken up out of a deep sleep with the piercing cry of, "I'm gonna barf!!!" Well, maybe one other thing. Actually waking up to the panicked noise of retching beside you. In your bed. On you as you struggle from sleep. That was my night.

For whatever reason this year, we missed getting our flu shots. We usually get them every single year, and we fare pretty well. We end up with maybe one significant cold or flu and it's only a day or two in its' visit. This year, the flu date clinics seemed to fall at the weirdest times for our schedule, and as we don't have a doctor here since we moved here, that wasn't really an option either. So we just missed. Never, ever again.


It seems the last few months have been a cycle of one person getting a fever and then whatever other symptoms, followed piggyback by the next person and so on and so on and so on. We just get better for a week or two, heck maybe even THREE, and then it's baacccck.

My youngest daughter started a high fever on Saturday night. No amount of Tylenol seemed to be touching it though. Every two hours or so it would spike again. She said her tummy ached a little, she wasn't very hungry, and she seemed fatigued. Last night, I kept her in my bed so that I could keep a closer eye on her, as well as monitoring medication times and all of that good stuff. She seemed okay until about midnight. Then, the vomit started. And kept on coming and coming. She stopped at about 730am. It was, and is, so painful to watch her little face get all red and contorted. Since she hadn't eaten much, her little body would wretch with nothing really to bring up. Silent tears slipped down her cheeks. I washed off her face, put up her hair, offered sips of water and brought up a bowl to put on the bed in case we didn't quite make it in time.

At one point, she turned to me and said, "Mommy! You shouldn't be so close to me when I'm sick. You're going to get it!!! And who will take care of you??? You're the Mommy! You take care of everyone else."

I said that I didn't mind taking care of her, that I'd take my chance of getting sick, and that I was a grown up and I could take care of myself if I got what she has. She looked over at me again and said, "I'd take care of you Mommy, because you do such a good job taking care of me."

All of the barf, laundry loads ahead of me and moments of worry were all erased in that slice of time.

Well, okay. Maybe not ALL of the barf. Gag.