Double Whammy

Mona came to town last Friday and Rich & family came in on Saturday. It was nice seeing Kam & Maddy again. We celebrated Zac's 12th birthday on Sunday night with burgers, hot dogs, potato salad, crab-macaroni salad, Grandpa's famous chocolate cake and Grandma's cheesecake with the Oreo crust (it never fails -- one of the grandkids always comments on how "burnt" the bottom is ;-). Was a good time for all.

Then came Monday.

Mona came down with an awful stomach bug and was throwing up all day.
Stephen came down with a horrible sore throat and stayed in bed all day. He thought maybe it was strep, but Rich (one of my two doctor brothers) said that it probably wasn't. (He was right -- it turned out to be a really bad cold.)

By Monday night, Sister had gotten the stomach bug, and then so did Grandma (Mom), Em & I. At this point, all of us were ralphing except for Em, who only had the runs. (Sorry if TMI.)

Tuesday, Rich & his family (his parents-in-law included) drove to Phoenix, and Nancy (his MIL) was sick all the way. [That's brutal! Same thing happened to me on a drive down from the Bay Area, except it wasn't a stomach bug. (Hmm... ;-)]

By Wednesday, Rich & Heather were vomiting. His FIL was feeling bad, too, but Kam & Maddy were spared (at least at that point).

Emily started vomiting on Tuesday night and continued all day Wednesday. I noticed that she threw up after I gave her solids (even just saltines). Poor thing. Once I stopped feeding her "real" food though, she quit throwing up altogether. She also got Stephen's cold on Tuesday and had a runny nose until Thursday. (Are you keeping track of all this?)

Wednesday, my stomach bug was gone, but that night, I felt the cold coming on. My throat felt dry and scratchy. I should have taken Airborne, but I wasn't sure if it was okay for nursing moms and I forgot to look it up. Still haven't done so.

Yesterday, Emily was pretty much all better, except for a little more diarrhea. My cold was definitely present, but not too bad. It wasn't until last night that I took a turn for the worst. I went to bed and just could NOT breathe. I was miserable. I never got that horrific sore throat that Stephen got (then again, my symptoms are never as severe as Stephen's*), but boy was I congested. Since I couldn't breathe, I couldn't sleep. It wasn't until I "nasaled"** (Stephen calls it "nasaling" while Sister calls it "syringing") that I felt better. It loosened stuff up enough for me to be at least a little relieved. I finally got to sleep and woke up feeling pretty bad. I took a nap with Em today (I was out COLD for about an hour this afternoon), and I'm looking forward to bedtime tonight! :-(

Today I started Em back on solids (very slowly, of course). She took some crackers just fine. I wish she would drink more water or Pedialyte. She might be a bit dehydrated. At least she's nursing a lot. They say that's the best thing for her right now. Speaking of the Pedialyte, she doesn't like it! She'll take a couple swigs of water every now and then, but the Pedialyte? Forget it. I don't blame her -- I tasted the stuff the other day, and it was NASTY! Maybe it was the flavor (fruit), but it was bad. I was really expecting it to taste decent if not yummy!

Anyway, I hope we're ALL (extended family included) feeling better by tomorrow.

* Whenever Stephen & I catch the same bug, his symptoms are much more severe. We've often wondered why this may be. One theory is that his system might not have built up immunities to different illnesses like mine has since he wasn't in school (and I was). Again, it's just a theory!

** "Nasaling" (or "syringing") is something Stephen & my sister (and others) do to prevent illness or shorten its duration. It consists of taking a bulb syringe and blasting warm, salty water up the nose daily (or multiple times daily). Stephen & Sister are convinced that it helps prevent illness. In fact, when he got sick this time (and another time a year ago), it was during the few days that he forgot to nasal. Click here, here and here for more information.


Update (03-25-06):
Stephen got the gastroenteritis and was in bed all day. Sigh.