Putrification

You may have read on Chris' blog about our recent bout with the Rotavirus. For those of you who have not had the pleasure, I will not resort to my normal gross-you-out-with-body-functions post. However, let us just say that between 10am and 11pm yesterday, Chris and I involuntarily completely cleansed our bodies of all toxins, food, and perhaps some G.I. linings.

I've had stomach bugs before. In fact, almost exactly a year ago, I came down with one at work and Chris had to come pick me up and drive me home. I literally couldn't function well enough to drive. However, even then, by midnight that night when HE had developed the same bug, I was able to at least function well enough to take care of Athena when she woke up in the wee hours of the morning, and I was able to eat within 24 hours of my first "episode." However, pregnancy seems to make everything worse...

Yesterday, I got home (I was able to drive myself, but just barely) and after a few more "episodes" I crashed. I had put in calls to the doctor for advice on what I could take and what I should watch out for. They called me around 1pm and recommended Immodium. We, of course, had none in the house. Neither Chris nor I could chance a journey out to the drugstore, so we rolled over and tried to sleep more off.

By 4pm, Chris was able to get up to go collect Athena at daycare. Just before he did, I took a turn for the worse. So I called the doctor again, and they called in a prescription for an anti-nausea drug. (And incidentally, hooray for insurance. Eight tablets -- of which I will probably only need the one I already took -- would have set us back $233 and some change. With insurance -- $30.)

So not only did Chris have to stop at the store for ginger ale and Immodium, he also had to go by the drugstore and get my prescription. And folks, if he even felt HALF as bad as I did, he must have literally crawled in there with Athena tethered to his ankle.

So the medicine worked well for the nausea, but the Immodium was a bit slower to take effect. Unfortunately, at about 7pm, we both developed a fever. Mine was 99.8, his was 100. (He wins). However, I was still way more knocked out than he was, and he managed to get Athena in the bath and get her to bed. I called the doctor again, because they told me I should go to the hospital if my fever got to be 101. Since it seemed to be going up, I wanted advice on whether or not I could take Tylenol to try to bring it down. I also started calling friends to see if someone could watch Athena in the event we did have to go to the hospital.

They told me I could take Tylenol. Unfortunately, no one told my stomach that and it sent me a message loud and clear... REJECTED! So I gave up on trying to stop the fever through drugs and just lay back down in the hopes it would break before getting too high. The doctor DID say that I could wait for the fever to hit 103, so I wasn't worried that it was really going to get that high.

By 10:30, I took my last Immodium and fortunately it worked... as I'd hit the maximum dose. By midnight, both of our fevers broke. We really did seem to enjoy a simulataneous sickness. And you know what they say, they family that's sick together... well, if you're lucky, you don't kill each other.

So today, our task was to rehydrate. I took Athena to school and I nearly passed out from having an empty stomach. So I had some crackers and they actually stayed put. It was a very exciting moment. The rest of the day was spent in bed sipping water and ginger ale, eating crackers and a peanut butter sandwich, sleeping, watching four episodes of Sex and the City so I could send the disc back to Netflix and sleeping. Normally, this would sound like a day in paradise. However, the underlying nausea and the unsurity of whether anything would actually stay down made it less than perfect.

I am pleased to report that all seems to be staying put... even the hotdogs we had for dinner. I still feel extraordinarily weak, but I'm hoping that I can regain a fair amount of strength before I have to be at work at noon tomorrow.