#199 In which our hero relates the events of a rather bad week, part the second.

Ugh! So much blog-worthy stuff is happening so quickly that I can hardly keep up! And, since I’m also busy-busy at work, I don’t have time to record it all on the company nickel. Well, except this morning.

As it turns out, the big looming presentation that was supposed to be this Wednesday has been pushed back by the client. The rumor is that it’ll be a couple weeks from now, but I honestly suspect the real time frame is “never.” But, more about that in a later post--first I have to record the tragic events of a rather bad week (which now is three weeks ago!)

Anyway, you may remember that it started with Mom’s health scare. After I got back from that kafuffle, we had to deal with Macey, who had been increasingly cranky and unlike herself. She had a low-grade fever on Monday, so she couldn’t go to school. I decided to stay home with her, figuring that I didn’t have a huge amount of stuff to do at work, and could afford to burn a sick day. A trip to the doctor later that day revealed that she had ear infections in both ears. We started to medicate her, hoping it would only be a day or two before she snapped back.

Now, in the past, Macey has taken medicine by mouth with little fuss and bother. But, there was something about this particular drug that she didn’t like. What followed was a farce of epic proportions as The Scientist and I held her down bodily and squirted pink medicine in her mouth. Which, more often than not, she spit right back out. After several days of this, we figured out the optimum headlock/syringe angle to guarantee maximum drug delivery.

Then, Lily got sick.

This wasn’t unexpected, since The Scientist had had a few shaky days of stomach woes. But when I got Lily up for school on Thursday, she was curled up at the foot of the bed. We had this conversation:

ME: Honey, why are you down here?
LILY: My bed is dirty.
ME: Why’s your bed dirty?
LILY: Because it’s full of crumbs.
ME: Crumbs? Who’s been eating crackers in your bed?
LILY: … Macey has.
ME: Really? Macey was eating... wait a minute.

That's when I noticed the line of dried puke down the sleeve of her pjs. Turns out her bed wasn’t so much “dirty” as full of dried vomit. She had puked at some point during the night and the little trooper didn’t even wake us up. But it was all in her hair (of course) and I whisked her off to the tub. Neither The Scientist and I could afford to miss work, so I decided to bring her to work with me.

After cleaning her up and getting her dressed, she seemed fine. Not much of an appetite, but that wasn’t surprising. I gave her some water and toast, and she was in pretty good spirits. I packed the portable DVD player and a bunch of movies, grabbed a plastic basin (just in case) and loaded her in the car. We were 10 minutes from the house, and just about to turn on to the highway when things went really, really wrong.

Lily had joked (joked!) about having to puke earlier in the trip, but when it came, it was no laughing matter. She vomited suddenly and forcefully. “Use the basin, honey! Use the basin!” I chanted as I frantically looked for a place to pull over.

She managed to mostly puke on herself, down her jacket. The little champ had even puked in the basin some, but it was mostly out of her hands (and all over her hands). She started to cry and I pulled out wipes to clean her up. Now I had a vomit-covered kid and I needed to get to work. “Honey, don’t cry, we’ll get you cleaned up. Then we'll … then, jeez honey, I really don’t know what to do.”

And as soon as I said that, I kicked myself in the ass. Because this is exactly what The Scientist tends to say at times like this, and it drives me nuts. Because it’s not that she doesn’t know what to do, it’s that she doesn’t want to face the real decision.

So I did the only thing I really could do… I cleaned up my daughter as best as I could and took her home ("No! I want to go to work with you!"). Once there I put her into clean clothes, wrapped her up in a blanket on the couch (with basin near) and let her watch whatever cartoons she wanted. I called work and explained that I wasn’t coming in, and that someone else was going to have to pick up my work for the day.

Lily dozed off and on, but didn’t get sick again.

But I did… to really cap off a lousy week, I got the chills and aches and felt sick to my stomach (never booted, though) and went in to work on Friday, only to go home sick a couple hours later. All I had to eat or drink that day was a small bottle of juice. I suffered through Saturday, and started to really recover on Sunday. Even ate some food.

So that was our trying week… everyone sick for a portion of it (in fact, we’re still medicating Macey; the original drugs for her ear infection didn’t do the trick) with 50% of the household puking.

But everyone recovered, more or less, in time for a 16-hour road trip! Details coming soon!

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