Bad Karma Strikes and I Claim My Place in the Family Infirmary

I exposed my sick child to other people and their children today, so I guess I deserve to claim my spot in the family infirmary now. After all, what goes around comes around, right? I have had quite the headache for the past several hours now and am feeling pretty sick at my stomach, too. After watching Zachary throw up all day, though, is it any wonder why???

Poor Zachary has not been able to keep anything down all day. After cancelling our lunch plans, Zachary was very sad when I told him we'd be staying home instead of riding the Zilker Park train as planned. After each episode he had of throwing up, I'd say it again, "I promise we'll go next week when you're feeling better!" But that did not ease his troubled little heart. At one point, while sitting on the floor next to the toilet, he offered this impassioned plea: "Mommy, I have tried EVERYTHING I can think of, but the sickness is just not going away!" Who likes to see a kid have to work so hard, and despite all his efforts, feel like he has failed? Not me. I know there will definitely be times where I have to put my foot down and keep him home when he is sick, but I didn't feel like this HAD to be one of those times. He wanted to go so badly, and he was even wearing his little train conductor's hat and bandana and looked so cute, I figured we could give it a shot. I packed up an extra shirt and towels just in case and we headed down to the park, but not before Zachary eagerly offered a prayer that he would not throw up and have to miss the train.

After arriving at the park, we bought our train tickets but had a little time to play at the park before its departure. Zachary was all over that park and seemed to be happy despite not feeling well. We played so much that we almost MISSED our train. We boarded right as the conductor yelled, "All aboard!" and took off in a matter of seconds. We were lucky that we made it. That was close! It was a beautiful day outside, but the wind was blowing pretty hard, so I spent half the time shielding my eyes and mouth from the flying dirt and grit, but the kids enjoyed themselves. Zachary was sad, though, that we didn't see Woody this time (a man who hangs out along the route playing his guitar and harmonica.) Apparently, Woody was a significant part of what made the train so fun the first time and the reason why Ashley insisted on bringing their harmonica (though I made her leave it in the car.) We played a little more in the park before Zachary found a spot atop one of the slides and laid down. I told him, at that point, that we needed to go home so he could rest. We managed to get through our outing just before Zachary's stomach began acting up again. On the way home, I tried to supervise his next episode while driving along the toll road. I came prepared, though, and he was covered in a towel and the car was spared. He looked pretty bad at that point, so I asked him, "Do I need to take you to the doctor?" He replied (weakly), "Don't be so rude!"

We made it home and Zachary rested all afternoon while I worried about what more serious ailment he could possibly have than the innocuous 24-hour stomach bug that Ashley had over the weekend. I was looking up appendicitis when a friend suggested that a way to tell if a kid has that is to straighten out his leg and push firmly on his heel as though I'm trying to push his leg into his pelvis. Does that not sound HORRIBLE?! At the time, Zachary was sleeping, so I waited until he woke up to inflict more pain on him. First, I asked him if he felt better (he said "yes") and asked him if his stomach hurt, while I pressed lightly on it (he said "no") and then I straightened his leg and inflicted the torture, which only resulted in Zachary throwing up all the water he had drunk over the 2 hours prior. He was holding NOTHING down. I hate to see anyone so sick.

Chris got home around 5:30 and after a few minutes, I went and lied down to see if I could shake the headache that had crept in over the course of the afternoon. He was so good to watch the kids while I ended up sleeping all evening. I didn't feel much better when I got up a few hours later, but maybe this will pass by the morning. Worse than taking care of sick kids (or husbands) is caring for them when you are also feeling yucky. So, with that, I'm going to sign off and get myself ready for bed and pray that this is gone when I wake up.