Monday, April 15, 2013

Sick Week

(Warning! What you are about to read may contain graphic details of illness and references to the behaviors associated with being sick. Please read at your own discretion. Names have been changed to protect the innocent.)
Two sick babies and one pre-sick mommy
It all started last Monday. My class was cancelled due to a death in the family of the teacher. Daddy had just come home from class and we had all enjoyed lunch together as a family. I remember thinking about all the things I had to get done over the next few days and was going to take advantage of the extra time. I went to rock baby to prepare her for her nap when the unthinkable happened...she vomited...all over us both!

I called for Daddy to come help us. He stripped down the baby and changed her while I did the same. Daddy attempted to rock her to sleep, trying to keep her calm, when it happened again! Once doesn't really concern us, it could have been anything, but twice? Uh oh....poor kiddo. The rest of the day continued with messiness as we watched our normally energetic child turn into a whiney mess, who did nothing but cling to us.

After a worrisome 24 hours, she began to drink fluids steadily and was beginning to nurse again. We thought the worst was over! But late Tuesday afternoon as I was nursing her, I noticed she felt warm...very warm. She had a fever of 102.4! We stripped her down to nothing and gave her a cool bath. Poor baby just sat there, like a zombie. We decided to keep her in a diaper after that. With every attempt to give her Tylenol, she would send it right back up.

The next day, Wednesday, is normally chapel. Daddy went alone while Adah and I laid in our bed together. We watched French cartoons and drank as much water as I could forced on her. When daddy came home from class, he made a beeline for the bathroom. After what felt like forever, poor daddy came out looking pretty green. He put on some sweats and dragged himself into bed with Adah. I decided to eat while daddy and Adah took a mini-nap break together. But soon after eating, I felt it too. Tummy troubles! Oh no! If Adah was sick, and daddy, and now mommy, who will take care of us?

I know what you parents out there are thinking...you have been there...done that...dead of winter...in the middle of nowhere...20 kids... Well, this was our first time folks!

What followed can only be described as torture: 3 people with tummy troubles, and every possible outcome associated with tummy troubles, with ONE bathroom! What about the kitchen sink? Filled with dirty dishes. What about the kitchen trash can? Filled with trash. Let's just say that we got pretty creative.

After 24 hours of dehydration and misery, we were left exhausted, weak, and in pain. After hours of stomach churning and spasming, we felt like we had been hit with a load of bricks! Daddy and I kept saying over and over, "I wish I was in the hospital!" But, we toughed it out and took care of ourselves and the baby.

And we were even blessed by other missionary families who made food drop offs at our doors after the worst of the battle was over! Thank goodness, because we had no "sick people" food and cooking was out of the question!

By Saturday, Adah's fever had officially broke (but she does have a fever rash that is still present). By Sunday, we were all eating normal food again.

So here we are a week later. We are working on getting back to our schedule and we are working on catching up on the homework we missed out on last week. This is the last week of school, so we are WAY behind. Please pray that we can catch us and continue to regain our strength.

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