Back from hell...

Ugh.  Where to start? 

Thursday night at work, I started feeling weird.  I had this awful headache and some nausea.  I thought perhaps it was the makings of one of those totally debilitating killer migraines coming on.  However, in the wee hours of last Friday morning, I awoke with severe nausea and cramping.  Soon thereafter, I had a threesome with the bathroom garbage can and the toilet.  Sexy, right?  The rest of Friday was spent in an achy fog, drifting in and out of consciousness between trips to the toilet.  By Saturday I was much better, and hoping that no one else in our family would suffer the wrath of this awful stomach virus that I understand now is making the rounds in our area.

But, as stomach viruses often go, it spread like wildfire.  Saturday night, Jonathan got it.  We had stopped over at our neighbor's house to chat, and I knew something wasn't right when Jon Jon stayed real close to me and wasn't running around with the kids like he usually does.  After a little while, he wanted to ride his bike.  He walked up the street with our neighbor's oldest girl to get his bike, and upon his return, as he was crossing the street, he threw up.  Right in the middle of the street.  Poor guy.  I got him home and cleaned up, and he was pretty pissed that he couldn't ride his bike like he wanted to.  He dry heaved a few more times, and by morning he was doing much better. 

Sunday was spent disinfecting and lysoling everything in the house, in the vain attempt to thwart the spread of this vicious pox.  I go back to work on Monday, hopeful that this would be it for us and this stomach virus.  Monday night I get home to find Katie in our bed.  She's complaining that her stomach hurts.  A short while later, she's thrashing and moaning, so I make her get up and go to the potty.  She sat there a little while, nothing doing, then she wanted to go back to bed.  I get her back in bed, and then Jon wakes up wanting a drink.  Shawn gets up to get him his drink, and I'm in the bathroom, and I hear a huge ralph and the sound of a large amount of liquid hitting the floor.  At first I thought Shawn spilled something in the kitchen, but I soon realized, it's Katie.  She's freaking out, covered in puke from head to toe, and so is our bed and bedroom floor.  At 2 a.m., I had to put her in the tub and get her cleaned off, while Shawn took on the task of getting the bed and floor cleaned up.  She and I spent the rest of the night/morning camped out in the living room.  By the wee wee hours, the body aches kicked in for her and she was pretty much inconsolable.  Shawn tried giving her Tylenol, but she gagged on it.  So, no rest for any of us.  It was a tough night, but by mid-day she was feeling quite a bit better. 

But then, just when you thought it was over, Hubby gets it.  He spent his evening last night "peeing out his butt" (his words) and vomiting.  I was at work, of course.  I told him to call me if he needed me, but apparently he's quite tough and was able to manage.  Bless his heart. 

Today, Hubby is feeling much better, the Girl is back at school and the Boy's appetite has returned.  For someone who basically subsisted on chocolate milk for three days, he's certainly making up for missed meals today.  In the span of three hours, he's eaten waffles, a bowl of cereal, a string cheese and half a baloney sandwich.  That's like his food consumption for an entire day.  So we're on the mend, having fought off yet another family-wide stomach bug.