Experiments in Life

Warning: This post contains graphic details concerning vomit. You have been warned.

Ah, there is nothing quite like waking up to fresh vomit in the morning. Well, I guess technically Jon and I didn’t wake up to it, but Emily sure did.

I had headed upstairs to wake Emily up so that we could get her ready to go to daycare. When I walked in the room, I almost fell over from the smell. As I neared the crib, I found my child covered from head to toe in vomit. Apparently some time during the night she tossed her cookies, and then slept in it. Emily did not make a sound all night so we have no idea when she got sick. I felt so horrible for not knowing though. Her hair was plastered to her head and the sheet was soaked. Note to self, cranberries look the same before and after.

Poor Emily takes a while to wake up so she was quite stunned when we put her straight into the bath tub. She just looked around and had a very confused look on her face. I bathed Emily while Jon took care of the vomit clean-up. Luckily the mess was contained to the crib, which was pretty amazing considering the mess. Needless to say, we decided to keep Emily at home today. After a round of ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’ to decide who would stay home this morning, Jon headed off to work and I got Emily ready for the day. So far, she hasn’t eaten anything but she’s been drinking pedialyte like it is the best thing since sliced bread.

I have no idea what set her off. Perhaps it was her staying up late last night, or maybe what she ate (chicken nuggets and berry bits). Or maybe it was all the election excitement. She was very enthusiastic about coloring in the map as the election results came in. Who knows…as long as we don’t have yet another illness to contend with. Seven weeks of suffering from various diseases is more than enough for me. Hopefully this will pass quickly and without any more vomiting. Even though it may just be an isolated incident, I can tell Emily isn’t quite right. She’s not eating and does not really seem interested in it at all. And so far, her playing has been subdued compared to her normal activity level. We all certainly hope she returns to her normal, happy self soon.

We’ll keep you posted on her progress. Hopefully tomorrow she will be back at daycare and we’ll all be back at work.

Well, I’m off to change a diaper…

Update: Emily went to the doctor and she has another ear infection. She just got over one a couple of weeks ago. My guess is she never fully recovered. The doc said she had a lot of drainage going on so that is probably what caused her to toss her cookies. We kept her home again today since she was running a fever yesterday afternoon. She seems to be feeling much better today. She is not nearly as pitiful today. Now, if only the rest of us can get well…

It’s me, Ashley. I know we’ve been MIA for a while, and for a few days, I thought we were on our way to becoming visible to the world again. Apparently that was wishful thinking. Our house has been plague central here lately. Thus, we’ve been under quarantine for about 3 weeks now. Typhoid Emily brought home a nasty stomach bug about two weeks ago. I will spare you the unpleasant details. Suffice it to say, it was not nice at all and it knocked Jon and me out for about a week. Emily of course was symptomatic for two days with several normal days in between. Jon and I were not that lucky. Initially, Jon was hit the worst, but I ended up missing 2.5 days from work. Fortunately, Jon only missed one day.

Wednesday was relatively normal in that we all were back at daycare and work. Everything went fine until this weekend. Emily had a runny nose on Saturday so we knew she was getting a cold but nothing major to worry about. Sunday was uneventful as well. Monday was a different story. I got a call from her daycare to come and pick her up. They suspected that she had an ear infection and pink eye. When I arrived to pick her up, she was oozing green stuff out of her eyes. It was really bad. It was collecting on her eyelashes and causing them to stick together. Needless to say, Emily was less than thrilled about it. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get in to see the doctor until 3 that afternoon; we arrived home at 10 that morning. After a nap and attempting to eat some lunch, she wandered around for a while. She ‘helped’ our cleaning lady clean the house, and then it was time to go see the doctor.

The doctor took one look at her and and said “yikes!” She was diagnosed with bacterial conjunctivitis and a double ear infection. After our very brief visit to the doctor, we were in there less than 30 min, we stopped by the pharmacy to get her medicine. Luckily she is on an oral antibiotic. I don’t think she would have let us get anywhere near her if the medicine was eye drops.

So, now I am taking my shift with the sick kid. Jon took the morning shift so that I could go in to work and he’s at work this afternoon. According to Jon, Emily seemed to be feeling much better this morning. Of course, we have tried out best to keep her continually dosed with tylenol or motrin. Her eyes have also stopped oozing the thick green substance. There is nothing like having your toddler oozing icky green substances out of their eyes and nose. It’s really disgusting and pitiful all at the same time.

So, if you haven’t seen us in a while, it’s nothing personal. We have been very stingy with our plagues and have not wanted to share with other children, pregnant women, friends, or the general public. I hope that does not offend anyone And if you are planning on coming to watch the debate with us tonight, don’t worry, the house has been disinfected. We are not contagious in any way, otherwise my coworkers are going to kill me. So, please come see us. We feel very isolated from the world, especially from our local friends.

Here’s to getting well soon and wishing our readers a healthy and uneventful season.