An Ordeal.

Well, we have just been though the worst week of sickness in the history of our little family’s life. I’m going to try to use as little detail here as possible, in order to spare any readers from the disgustingness that has been our existence for the past six days. I’m writing this post for posterity’s sake; it is important to remember the bad and the good. This was in the category of BAD.

Friday night, at 8pm Owen threw-up in the most gruesome way imaginable. And that was the start. Braydon and I were up all night with Owen that night, who was violently ill for most of the night.

We spent Saturday trying to nurse Owen back to health, trying to make it through the day with two parents who had pulled an all-nighter, trying to occupy Meera and Kyle, doing loads and loads of laundry, and Cloroxing everything.

Sunday was a great day. We thought we were over it– and it was onward and upward!– as far as we were concerned. Little did we know.

Sunday night Braydon and I went to bed at 11:30. Half-an-hour later, at precisely midnight, Meera through up for the first time. She had been sleeping in our bed; we should have known, when she insisted that she go to sleep in our bed that night (highly unusual), that something bad was brewing. But hindsight is 20/20. I won’t describe the situation that proceeded for that entire night. I will say this: It was the worst case of a stomach virus I’ve ever witnessed in my entire life. I’ve never seen anything like it. Our poor, poor, poor girl was sick beyond belief. Read between the lines here people: it was absolutely HORRIBLE. Again, a long night of absolute non-stop misery.

Monday Kyle and Owen went to school. Braydon and I spent the day trying to nurse Meera back to health, trying to make it through the day with two parents who had pulled an all-nighter, doing loads and loads of laundry, Cloroxing everything, and attempting — with only limited success — to clean the carpets.

Kyle got home from basketball that night, walked in the door, and threw up. It was another long night.

We spent Tuesday trying to nurse Kyle and Meera (who still wasn’t fully recovered) back to health, trying to make it through the day with two parents who had pulled another all-nighter, doing loads and loads of laundry, and Cloroxing everything.

Tuesday night the most dreaded occurred. Mama got it. We knew things were bad when, at 2am, I fainted on the bathroom floor. It was the first and only time in my lifetime that I have ever fainted. We thank our lucky stars that Braydon was right there with me when it happened. It was another bad, bad, bad, bad, bad night.

Wednesday all three kids went to school. Braydon went to watch Meera’s 9am school show (I was so sad to miss it), then promptly returned home to spend the rest of the day trying to nurse Mama back to health, napping, doing loads and loads of laundry, and Cloroxing everything.

Yesterday I was still in recovery mode (lesson learned: a 40 year old does not bounce back as quickly as an 8 year old). Kyle and Owen went to school, and Braydon stayed home out of sheer exhaustion, an upset stomach upset (was it a touch of the flu? or was it purely psychological? we will never know), and to take care of Meera (who is home on Thursdays, normally with a babysitter, but we could not let the babysitter into our sick house).

A record number of videos were watched this week by our three bambinos. They loved that part of it.

Today we are all up, all going, and at work and school. We are over it.

It has given us a lot to think about. Mainly, how grateful we are for our health, our family, Clorox, and our living-on-campus-industrial-toilet.

Lots more blogging to come in the days ahead (I promise: not about vomit or diarrhea, but about lots of other — much better, and less self-absorbed — stuff)!