Wednesday (I think)

Well Sweet Pea held down several soda crackers and a little cup of apple sauce (you know, the pre-packaged cups) yesterday/last night, however she could not sit up. Said she was too dizzy, and nearly constantly felt like she was going to throw up. But was HUNGRY and kept demanding food.

She awoke around 3:30am, just after Slipshod deigned to come to bed, feeling very hungry. He got up and fed her another little cup of applesauce and then she wanted some soda crackers. She took a couple bites of one cracker and then said her tummy was starting to hurt again. She laid down and fell asleep pretty quickly. I got up to use the bathroom before going back to bed while Slipshod settled back into bed. While in the bathroom I heard coughing and when I came out Slipshod was on the floor next to Sweet Pea's bed, helping her get as much vomit as possible into the bowl. It was, of course, the applesauce.

We got her cleaned up and back to bed and she slept for another hour, then scared the shit out of me coming up onto the bed and waking me from a deep sleep to tell me in detail about a really scary dream she had just had. I got her back to bed and back to sleep but by that time the birds were chirping outside and it was getting lighter.

When we begrudgingly got up for the day Sweet Pea couldn't sit up again, and her dizziness seemed much worse. I carried her downstairs and called the doctor but was on hold for so long that when Slipshod came down to sit with Sweet Pea, I handed him the phone and went to take a shower. He talked with a receptionist and she said we've been doing all the right things for Sweet Pea and since they haven't been working we should take her in to see a pediatrician.

So we took her at 11am and the doctor said that this is going around - she saw a whole slew of children yesterday with the same symptoms. Since Sweet Pea had been having so much trouble keeping stuff down the doctor gave us a prescription for some lovely anti-nausea suppositories, but she said we don't have to use them if Sweet Pea starts being able to keep stuff down. She suggested continuing with sips of water, and if that stayed down the moving to diluted white grape juice, and from there to Otter Pops or other clear popsicles. When Slipshod was out at the store getting those things and the prescription he also thought to get some Jell-O.

The weird thing about this illness is that despite the vomiting, Sweet Pea has been all but yelling for food. The whole time. She just wants to EAT. I think it's weird, but I've also realized that in the past when she has wanted nothing to do with food during a puking illness, it could have been the fever that made her not feel like eating. There is no fever with this bug she has now.

The doctor said something we REALLY did not want to hear: "We've been seeing this illness go through families."

My response? "NO."

I've been almost OCD about washing my hands the past few days and have been doing my best to keep the girls' hands well washed too. We'll see how it goes. We're of course desperately hoping that nobody else in our house gets this, but what are the odds of that? You've seen our track record this winter.

Speaking of which - we did ask the doctor this time if we need to be concerned about how very ill Sweet Pea has been this winter (how many times, I mean), because we passed the point of ridiculousness a long time ago. Slipshod told the doctor that we've been blaming it on this being Sweet Pea's first year of preschool and she confirmed that that is an extremely valid theory. She also said that this has been a horrible winter for viruses and the entire population has been sicker than usual. She said that if Sweet Pea were the only kid they kept seeing who was this sick all winter they might be concerned, but since everybody is pretty much dealing with the same situation this year, the frequency and severity of illness in our household is considered normal and not a cause for concern.

That makes me feel better in terms of my worry that Sweet Pea's immune system is compromised, but it makes me feel very scared in terms of how nasty the viruses are this year. I hope that next winter will be easier in terms of illness, because if things get worse it seems like we'd be under biological attack. That may sound dramatic, but if you know how much we've dealt with since November, and that I can't remember going longer than 3 weeks without illness in the family, you might understand my point of view.