On Sunday December 6th, Cecilia got sick and threw up through the night. The next day, she seemed to be feeling better, but she also had pink eye, so we had her checked by the pediatrician. He told us that it was probably a virus and that there wasn't much to do other than wait it out. We thought that was it, until later on the 7th, when Grant started throwing up and kept throwing up, for more than 12 hours! Then on the 8th, Chad said he was feeling ill, Lucas had a major throw up, and I started feeling sick to my stomach too. At that point, we knew we were in for it.
I ended up taking both boys to Urgent Care at the advice of the nurse at the pediatrician's office because Grant had been sick for such a long time and Lucas was so little still. While we were there, I found out that Chad had gotten very sick at home as well and then I started to throw up myself. It was like a perfect storm. :( While we were at Urgent Care, the doctor gave Grant some Zofran, an anti-nausea medication. Unfortunately, she said that Lucas was too little to get it and since he was still vomiting, that I would need to take him to the ER to get IV fluids. Then, she gave me 4 more Zofran pills "for Grant" but mentioned that the adult dose was 1 pill (instead of the 1/2 pill that Grant got). Thank God that the doctor gave us the extra pills because that's all that got me through the next few hours.
So after I dropped Grant off at home, I headed to the ER with Lucas. I figured that we were in for a long wait for "vomiting", but I guess since Lucas was so little we got bumped up the priority list a bit. During the triage meeting, I told the nurse we were all sick and had had Zofran. She was surprised that they hadn't given any to Lucas at Urgent Care, and after checking with a doctor, ended up giving him a half tablet, which was the same dosage that Grant had gotten. Then she told me to wait 30 minute and give him some Pedialyte to see if he could keep it down while we waited for a room. Unfortunately, during that half hour wait, I threw up a couple times more. I think I really worried an older couple that was sitting by me, since I was holding Lucas, who was heaving, while I was throwing up myself. The man went up to the triage nurse to tell him that I was throwing up and after the nurse came over to check on me, it wasn't too long until we were called back to a room.
Lucas was a trooper through the whole process. He was not very happy, but he tolerated it better than I thought he would. Along with the IV for fluids, the doctor suggested that Lucas have his urine tested to make sure that he didn't have a urinary tract infection (UTI), as his symptoms and age could possibly indicate that. Unfortunately, they were not able to get much urine out with the catheter after a long struggle to get it in. So the nurse sent what they had gotten out but also added a stick-on bag to catch any other urine that Lucas produced for later testing if needed.
After Lucas got some fluids into him, he finally was able to get some sleep. You could tell that he was exhausted, but he just couldn't sleep before that.
He seemed to feel better once he took his little nap. He started to play with his hands and his pacifier. Not too much later, after he was done with the IV fluids, I was able to nurse Lucas and he kept it down. While I was nursing, Lucas fell asleep again and got another nap. After he woke up again, they were able to get some more urine to test and found out that Lucas had a UTI. Since he already had the IV, they decided to give him the first dose through the IV. Unfortunately, there were some issues with the IV having kinked or something since it was so tiny, and the nurse had to take quite a bit of time to get the IV working correctly again. By the time we were done with the IV antibiotic and finally discharged, it was about 3AM. It was a very long night.
Meanwhile, back at home, everyone was sick. Chad couldn't keep anything down and was pretty much stuck in the bathroom. Grant and Cecilia were in the living room watching TV and sleeping off and on. Chad said there was a time he heard Grant getting sick in the living room and he was so sick himself that he just couldn't go help Grant at all. This photo is what I found when I got up the morning after the ER. Grant was asleep on the floor of the living room covered in towels as blankets and Cecilia was asleep on the couch. Since everyone was still sick, I ended up calling our pediatrician and getting Zofran prescriptions for all three kids (which we shared among the whole family). Thankfully, I must have had a pretty light case of the Norovirus, because I was feeling better by the 9th, or really only about 12 hours after I had started feeling sick.
Chad took this photo on December 11th. I was bleaching the bathrooms when Lucas started to cry from being left on the floor. Chad was still sick though and couldn't watch Lucas. So I just strapped him into his carrier and kept cleaning. Chad thought that was really funny.
