Been A Hard Week

It's been an interesting week and a half.  Tate and I have both battled some sort of respiratory malady, and he had a stomach virus that lasted a few days or he came in contact with one of his allergens causing the issues;  I don't know which at this point.

So last Wednesday (the 11th) when I arrived at daycare, Tate looked absolutely miserable. He made his way slowly over to me, whereas he normally he races up to me, and told me "I want to go to bed when I get home with no stories."

This boy loves having stories read to him.  And he hates going to bed, so this was definitely a sign he didn't feel good.

We got home, and he truly didn't want any dinner.   He was just so unhappy. We blew off bath time, and I read him a couple of stories because he had changed his mind :).  He was asleep by 7pm.  

45 minutes later he was up tossing and turning and flailing about.  I got him back to sleep and he was awake again 45 minutes later, crying and tossing and turning and just completely out of sorts.

Then he vomited some bile.  Cleaned him up and back to sleep he went for about an hour.  

More tossing and extending his body all of the place 45 minutes later.  A little more bile.

Poor baby.

I got into bed with him.  He threw up one more time around 1:30am.  But we were up almost every single hour because he was so miserable and crampy,  

I myself had started feeling bad Wednesday morning with a cough and yucky throat.  Wednesday evening when I left work  I had a fever of 101.6.  But once I got to Tate and realized he was sick, I just did what all mommys do...single or not.

I soldiered on.  I took 4 Advil and took care of my boy.

Thursday morning I called in the cavalry...my dad.  He met me at my office and took Tate back to our house.  He spent the entire day taking care of Tate for me!!  Before we left the house I gave Tate his new Sven doll...one of my girlfriends had found him (FINALLY) at the Disney store a couple of weeks ago and picked him up for me.  She mailed him to me and I was keeping him to give to Tate on his birthday (Sven is his favorite 'Frozen' character and he's been asking for the Sven doll).  Giving him Sven brought the first smile of the morning.

On the way to my office to meet Papa!

He did well all day according to my dad...no vomiting etc.  When I got home, he was exhausted though and told me his throat hurt and he just wanted to go to bed.  So we went upstairs for stories and an early bedtime.  I gave him some Advil and we were ready for the night.  (I was exhausted)

The beloved Sven

One of the few laughs of the day.

He tossed and turned alot this night as well, but we did get a solid 5 1/2 hours from 11:30-5.  Then I told him he had to go back to sleep, and boy was I mad.  I was tired, mad and not feeling great.  He finally went back to sleep until 7am.

We got up and I decided to take him to daycare, so I could go to my office for my PALS (Pediatric Advanced Life Support) class that started at 9:30.  He seemed so much better, and I didn't want to bother my parents.  I wanted to take the class, so as not to seem like I was blowing things off, wanted to be on the same page as the other docs in the office and I didn't really want to be bothered with having to do it on a Saturday in October.  However, I made Tate an appointment with the pediatrician for that afternoon because he was still complaining his throat hurt.

He had yet to have a fever.

I picked him up from daycare at 12:45.  My poor sweet boy was almost asleep...my first clue he was still miserable.  One of the teachers told me he told her he was tired and wanted to take a nap.  All the teachers know that is not like Tate!  I gathered him up and we were off to the doctor.  

Throat clear.  Ears clear.  Chest clear.  Nose clear.  Fast strep...negative.  Flu swab...negative.  No good answers except that there seemed to be some sort of sore throat virus going around that comes with congestion a few days later.  The ped (not our usual as she was off that day) recommended OTC pain meds as needed.  In fact since Tate looked so miserable in her office she gave him some motrin right then and there.

We left and I was starving.  I decided to drive through Chick-Fil-A.  I told Tate I would get him some white ice cream if it was safe for him.  Now, I know that Chick-Fil-A cooks with peanut oil, but their ice cream seemed fine as I checked the ingredients.  As I don't ever let Tate have fast food (the only other time was at a McDonald's in Canada when he had some french fries) this was huge for me.

He lapped up the ice cream!

We got home and all seemed ok.  I opened up his lunch kit, and he had not eaten anything at lunch time save one bite of his grilled cheese sandwich.

Two hours later he vomited all over me, the couch, the bathroom floor and the hardwood floor.

Sweet boy.  All the ice cream came back up.  I got him cleaned up and we cuddled a bit more.  And again he complained of a sore throat.  I got him into bed and he was asleep within minutes.

We had another bad night of tossing and turning.  Cramping, cramping, cramping...poor baby.  My mom had come over for the night as the a/c at their house was out on one side.  Saturday morning I took a quick walk to get some donuts before she left and then Tate and I spent the entire day at home.  

It was just wonderful.  Absolutely wonderful.  We watched movies, he played with his trains and his new passion...'Planes'...as in the movie 'Planes.'  He loves the characters...Dusty, Skipper, Chug, you name it.  He has a miniature set of the characters and can spend hours flying them through the air and putting them on the train tracks with his miniature set of Thomas the Train characters.  We stuck to bland, upset tummy foods for the day for him, and he was happy to eat minimally.  We crossed off one thing on our bucket list...he wrote a letter to Mickey Mouse!

We did one of his favorite in the house activities...experiments!

Bedtime came and he went to sleep easily.  And he slept through the night!!

Sunday...Father's Day.  I opted not to go to church as I knew it would be heavily focused on daddys and fathers and I just didn't want to subject Tate to hearing about it.   We hung out at home then made our way to my parents' as we were going to be spending the week with them while Tate went to VBS at their church Mon-Fri 9-12 each day.  My mom is a volunteer in his little group as well!  We got situated here at the house then took my dad out to dinner for Father's Day at Carrabas.  One of my dad's favorite restaurant.  And another item off our bucket list...Tate's 2nd new to him restaurant!!!

All went well even though we had to wait 30 minutes.  Tate was finally hungry and I informed the waitress of his food allergies, and I had called ahead to determine what would be safe for him.  He had some plain pasta made with butter and sucked it down!!  Aunt Lindsey joined us for dinner and it was a great night!

Photo by Tate!

Another photo by Tate!

Tate took at least 40 selfless!!

By 6:15 Tate was saying he was tired and wanted to go to bed.  This was the 5th night in a row that he had rallied during the day and at 6pm was asking to go to bed.  I was starting to get worried.  Again he complained of the sore throat.  I was starting to get panicked.  It just didn't make sense...fine all during the day, great energy, happy kid and then a huge crash at 6pm.  

We made it back to our home for the week, and I got him bathed and into bed.  He struggled again with cramping waking up not an hour after he went down.

And then he vomited all over the place four times!!

Sigh.

Ugh.

He was able to get back to sleep though he woke up at 3am tossing and turning.  I finally got him back to sleep around 4.  Poor baby.

Monday morning he seemed better and was in a good mood.  I went off to work, and my mom took him to Vacation Bible School where the theme is Weird Animals.

When I finally got back home Monday night he seemed much better.  He still complained his throat hurt, but he had had fun at VBS.  We stuck to bland food all day and he was exhausted.

Tuesday morning he begged to stay home with Papa instead of going to VBS, so we let him stay home, while my mom went off to teach the kiddos!

When I got home, he was in a fabulous mood.  What I've learned about my son is that he LOVES being at home.  He just loves his Papa.  He loves his grandmommy.  And he LOVES just hanging out with them in the house.  I need to embrace this time for him.  Just let them be.  I try not to worry that he's eating marshmallows and graham crackers all day, and just let him have this precious time with them.

By Wednesday he seemed completely on the mend.  No more complaining of a sore throat in the evening.  No more vomiting.  No more complaining, well not really :).  He still routinely says "I don't feel good," but that's to get out of say cleaning up his toys.  (This tactic does not work with me :) )

He's gone to VBS the past two days, and he'll finish out the week tomorrow!!

So looking back at how bad he's felt...I think he had contaminated food on Friday from Chick-Fil-A and on Sunday from Carrabas.  I will definitely not be letting him eat fast food again.  As far as Carrabas is concerned, we won't go there again, but also it was Father's Day, and I just don't know how serious our waitress took us.  Usually the manager or chef comes by to assure me that they will take all manners of precautions to keep Tate safe.  This didn't happen at Carrabas.  We won't try any other new places for a while (the Ruggles Green went well though the other week;  I trust them much more as it is an organic, health conscious restaurant).  But I'm thankful he was willing to try the different food at Carrabas!!

Oh and just like the ped said...Tuesday morning he woke up congested, coughing and sneezing!!  And no more sore throat!  He's getting his allergy meds and is doing great!

What a week!!!  Through it all though Tate has learned that God never leaves us!!  His love is one of a kind!!!!