Dirty Laundry

Julius and Patricia were so cute yesterday.  On the way to pick up our farmshare Julius was telling a story about one of his teachers.  Patricia wanted to participate in the conversation and told us that her friend went to <made up word that sounded like merfissle tree>.  Julius’s response was “I don’t know what that is”.  So to make Patricia feel better I asked her to repeat the word.  It was still totally non-intelligible.  I asked her one final time to repeat it and as I was deciding how to respond Julius chimed in, “oh yeah, I’ve heard of that, it’s the place where breadicorns live” and made up a whole silly backstory to go with it.  Patricia went along with it, pleased someone was listening.  It was adorable.

Well last week was the week from Hell and it just keeps on continuing.  I got sick Monday night with a horrible sore throat and fever, and Will got sick Tuesday with the same.  Julius had been complaining his tummy hurt the week before so when I went to go get tested for strep at the minute clinic on Wednesday, the NP said I should test Julius as well, since strep sometimes manifests only as stomach pain in young kids.  So I took Julius to the pediatrician to get him tested for strep and the pediatrician (not our normal one) starts asking him questions about his stomach and concludes he doesn’t have strep but needs to go to the ER for an xray.  (Which is weird because his stomach was no longer hurting.)

So I drag myself over to the ER with him to be on the safe side and they get xrays of his bowels (thankfully it was fast because I was still feeling absolutely terrible).  The doctor calls me back a couple hours later and tells me he most likely has chronic constipation and he should take Miralax for the rest of his life.  On top of that he should start Miralax and an enema tonight.  Um okay, makes zero sense to me but I acquiesce because I’m still feeling like crap and don’t feel like arguing.  So I drag myself to all the drug stores in town (now I really just want to sleep) and none of them have pediatric enemas.  The pharmacists tell me that’s something specialized that I need to order online.  We get home past Julius’ bedtime, so I don’t give him Miralax and obviously no enema.

Oh I forgot, also that day I get a call from Dany’s doctor that she has some tick borne disease and needs to come in for blood samples on Friday, and I need to capture a urine sample.  Thursday I am feeling a bit better so I collect and drop a sample off at the vet. I’m thinking this is going to be a better day.  Then I get a text from Patricia’s teachers in the morning warn us that she is complaining her tummy hurts and isn’t eating anything.  I think, “ah ha!  Maybe Julius does just have a stomach bug and now Patricia has it because she drank out of his water bottle earlier in the week”.  Patricia vomits all over her teacher and gets sent home.  She vomits all over me twice at home but then seems to be a bit better. (She tells Julius when she gets home, “Julius! I burped all over Ms. Sara then I burped all over my shoes and Ms. Sara had to wash my feeties”.  Julius who has heard the story with the word “vomit” instead of “burp” says “and I heard you burped all over your clothes too Patricia”.  And she giggles and says “oh yeah, I did.”)

Friday Patricia has to stay home on account of all the vomiting the day before.  She’s mega cranky and refuses to nap even though she is very unhappy, so I let her sleep on me in the afternoon and I take a nap too (I’m also not feeling great again, I think my sore throat turned into a sinus infection now).  Patricia and I both sleep thru my alarm to take Dany to the vet.  We pick Julius up from school and Julius’ doctor calls to see how he’s doing and how the miralax and enemas are going.  Oh right, forgot about that.  I had convinced myself she was completely over-reacting because I mentioned Will takes miralax daily.  (I’m still convinced of this.)  I explain I don’t want to give him miralax for the rest of his life without first tracking his bowels for at least a couple weeks.  I also tell him the details of his poop for the last 2 days (he pooped without an enema right after the doctor appointment on Wednesday so I’m not sure an enema would have helped).  She asks about the enema I explain that I’m waiting for it to come in because no stores carry them.  At this point she probably thinks I’m not listening to her recommendations at all and then tells me that “we don’t have the liberty of time” because “Julius’s bowels could explode”.  The xray report did not seem to indicate anything like the potential for bowel rupture, in fact the only thing it mentioned is that “in certain circumstances the presence of small amounts of gas in the bowel might be indicative of IBS”.  That doesn’t read like “imminent bowel explosion” to me, but what do I know, I’m not a doctor.  So I say okay I will give him the Miralax if it’s really that concerning.  I’m very annoyed now.  Wouldn’t my son have indicated some form of pain at present if his bowels were going to rupture?  But to stay off the bad parent list and prevent alleged bowel rupture I give him two tall glasses of microplastics for the next 2 days.

That’s when the horrible GI problems start.  Patricia hasn’t vomited since Wednesday, but she has all the other GI symptoms now.  And on Saturday so does Will.  I’ve somehow escaped.  Patricia is still unhappy, but by Sunday it seems she has turned a corner.  Will is still feeling awful. Julius and I have escaped it seems.  Monday Patricia again doesn’t eat any of her food at school and again asks for Mama and Dada at school (all very unusual occurrences).  I pick her up, nurse on call confirms that this vomit/GI thing is the exact symptoms and timing of what has been going around.

Which brings me to today!  Patricia is 100% back to normal.  Now Julius and I have GI problems.  Great.  Halfway thru the day I get a call that Patricia got a cut on her eyebrow that probably doesn’t need stitches, but might.  I show the picture to Patricia’s pediatrician and she suggests we go to the main Umass hospital since they have pediatric surgeons there if stitches are necessary.  Ugh.  Well the rest of my day is we waited for 4 hours, and when they finally saw us the bleeding had stopped completely and they determined it was just a scratch and didn’t need any stitches.  I’m afraid to think about tomorrow.

And on top of all that – the laundry is looking at me dirty again.  Really dirty.  haha. Okay that phrase just makes me chuckle.  If you want a sign that is guaranteed to make you chuckle, even when you’re washing vomit out of the family laundry, I highly recommend this next tutorial.

Dirty Laundry Sign

What you’ll need:

• small canvas (mine was 8″x10″)
• ocean blue acrylic paint
• white acrylic paint
• cricut adhesive vinyl sticker and pattern here

First I painted the entire canvas white and let dry.

Then I cut out my vinyl text – you can resize it to fit your needs!

Using transfer tape I adhered the vinyl letters to the canvas.  Here if I was smart I would cover the letters and around the edges with mod podge. It prevents the paint from bleeding.  But I wasn’t smart, so I didn’t do that.

Paint 2-3 coats of blue on top of the lettering.  Let dry.

Peel off the vinyl letters.

Use more white paint to touch up any bleeding.

Hang with pride.  Laugh everytime you step into your laundry room.