The Plague

It's been a couple of weeks since our last post and unfortunately, there has been a reason we've been so quiet. In case you haven't heard, Carter came own with a very severe case of Rotavirus, and then our whole family managed to get it, and then we all managed to get pink eye. We're still 100%, but at least we're finally starting to recover. It's been quite a couple of weeks.

It all started Saturday, January 21. We were running some errands and Carter randomly threw up in the car. It was quite a mess, but we took his clothes off and kept driving. IH-35 was closed down near our house, so it took a little longer to get home than we imagined. Carter threw up a second time about 30 minutes later (still in the car). We finally got home and Carter threw up several more times. We started getting concerned because his vomit turned bright yellow. Mommy called the doctor's office and they told us to put him on total stomach rest for a couple of hours. That turned out to be a bad idea because a few hours later, it became very clear that he was getting dehydrated. We packed up and went to Children's Hospital, where we had to wait around for 3 hours before finally getting seen a little after midnight.

At the hospital, they gave Carter an IV to get some fluids into him, as well as a glucose solution. He had a stomach x-ray to make sure his bowel wasn't obstructed (which it wasn't), and we finally made it home around 6 am. After a couple hours of sleep, Carter was throwing up again. He threw up over 15 times during the first 24 hours. That afternoon, the doctor's office directed us back to the hospital, where we waited another 2.5 hours only to find out that there was nothing they could do for him.

That day the diarrhea and the fever started. Within a few days, the diarrhea reached epic proportions. The smell took over our house and we were changing up to 7 diapers an hour. I'll spare you any more graphic a description, but it really was a disgusting few days. We were spared by our playgroup friends who really rallied around us (despite the fact that several of them ended up getting sick later on, too). They brought us a cooler and a couple of shopping bags full of food. It was a huge relief not to have to think about cooking while we were dealing with all of this.

Then on Thursday night, Chad and I both got sick. We were both up most of the night throwing up, and I had a fever that went up to 103. And in the meantime, Carter was still sick. We had a pretty yucky weekend, but by Sunday, Carter was at least getting back to his old self.

Monday morning, I woke up with really itchy, crusty eyes. By that afternoon, I realized that not only was it pinkeye, but we all had it. We all went to the doctor an spent several more days applying eye ointment and hot compresses to our eyes. I still don't know how we managed to get Pinkeye, as Carter and I literally hadn't left the house for a week. My best guess is that we picked it up at the Children's Hospital, or the doctor's office.

We're finally starting to do better, though Chad and I have had sore throats for a week now. And now Carter is cutting his first molar, so the fun never ends ;-)