Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Stomach Flu

Matthew went straight to D&D after the ward activity on Saturday. He got home at 12:30 and as I talked briefly with him before heading back downstairs to the boys, I knew it wouldn't be long before I was very unwell. It hit me around 2:00 am. I made trip after agonizing trip to the bathroom until the boys woke up around 7:00. I made it upstairs, where I handed kid duty off to Matthew and proceeded to spend the rest of the day miserable in bed. Matthew had already arranged a substitute for singing time, and spent the whole day playing Minecraft with the children. The boys were still quite lethargic, but neither threw up again. I managed to consume a glass of ice chips over the course of several hours and had about half a cup of clear soda just before the kids went to bed. 

I was feeling much better yesterday, and even managed to get Abraham to and from school. I made carrot soup for dinner, which was the first thing I was able to stomach in nearly two days. Matthew had a big presentation he needed to finish, and ended up staying at work until 10:30 pm. He came home exhausted, but appeared to have escaped getting sick.

I was probably a bit too excited about my ability to stand up right and even be mildly productive yesterday because today I'm feeling quite a bit worse. Mercy was super grumpy this morning and put herself down for a much needed nap not long before it was time to take Abraham to school. It had started snowing and I just didn't have it in me to go out, so I asked Abraham if he'd be okay staying home and playing with his Lego's and it wasn't too difficult to convince him to sluff. Hyrum had a field trip to the Natural History Museum, which sounds like it went well, and Matthew made it through another day flu free.

***

I suppose all the signs of an impending stomach bug were there, but they were so gradual and unassuming that we didn't see them for what they were. Mercy had had sufficiently unpredictable diarrhea since we got home from Colorado that we'd kept her in a diaper for nearly a week, but I attributed it to all the the travel and vacation food she's not used to eating. She even threw up last Thursday, but it came after a yelling match with Abraham and it's not uncommon for her to get so worked up that she vomits. Hyrum's appetite had been gradually diminishing and Abraham had put himself down for naps twice last week. The fact that no one wanted doughnuts really should have tipped us off, but alas we ignored even that. But, it looks as though Matthew might make it through unscathed, and I think the rest of us are likely on the mend. I can't decide which is worse now though: being one of the 4/5 of the family to have the stomach flu, or being the one who has to clean all the toilets after 4/5 of the family has the stomach flu. That's a tough one.

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