the past 3 days (long version)....

this has probably been the yuckiest sickness our house has ever seen. both boys have been sick, but poor canon, was pitiful.

saturday morning we woke up with our daddy in the house. the boys were so excited to have him back home. unfortunately, he was preaching sunday so he had to go up to the church to work on his sermon. the boys played while i unpacked and finished switching the boys closets and drawers over. all of a sudden canon ran to me crying...then it happened. the first of many throw-ups. it kept coming every 15-20 minutes. somewhere in there he made a lovely trail of a mess from living room to hallway to ALL over the bathroom. at that point i called lane home to help. he bathed while i cleaned up and started another load of laundry. after we got him settled, lane left and canon napped off and on.

when he couldn't even take a sip of water without keeping it down, i called the on-call doctor to see if i could give him anything to stop the vomiting. i wanted to catch canon before he got to the point of dehydration (after what he went through back in january with this almost exact situation). after 45 minutes, i still hadn't heard back from the doctor so i called again. the answering service said that he was in a conference until 5?? what's the point of on-call?

meanwhile, i heard ledger waking up from his nap and walked into his room to find himself and his bed completely covered in vomit. freak out moment #2! i called lane home again to help get canon over the trashcan while i cleaned ledger up. have i mentioned i don't do throw-up well?! lane stays so calm with the boys and i'm over there gagging with them. ledger seemed to be feeling ok and was actually playing.

at 5:30, after cleaning up more throw-up, we called back and she said he would only call if it was an emergency and if i wanted her to put it in the computer as an emergency. by that point, i had decided i would just take him to urgent care since he couldn't keep anything down. he and i loaded up, covered ourselves in towels, and proceeded. of course, he got sick at the admissions desk. thankfully, we had only sat down for about 30 seconds before they called him back to a room.

the doctor thought he was dehydrated so they hooked him up to fluids and gave him zofran. after 30 minutes, he had spunked up quite a bit. they gave him some pedialyte he was able to keep down, too. after 3 hours, they sent us on our way. the doctor said she would call in some zofran. when we pulled up to the pharmacy, it hadn't been called in yet and the office was already closed so i couldn't call. i decided instead of waiting for who knows how long, it'd be there if we needed it.

canon ate 2 bites of bread and 2 crackers and went to bed. at 2:50 am, he woke up screaming. we jumped up and i ran to get the trashcan. by the time i got in there, he was sick in his bed. i gave him a bath and moved him to the living room and switched laundry while lane ran to the pharmacy. around 3:45, first attempt at giving him the meds=fail. second time, he was able to keep them down and fall asleep.

at 4:30, i heard ledger so i grabbed him and he was gagging. after rocking him, and making sure he was ok, i laid him back down. around 5, he was coughing and gagging so i got him up and we just sat by the trashcan. he got sick a couple of times, but seemed to feel better so i moved him to the big crib since it would be easier to clean! at this point i got in my bed as the floor was killing me. i heard ledger fussing and gagging over the monitor so i went in and sure enough...another bedding change. 15 minutes later, lane's clock went off. finally after he had left, we all were able to stay asleep.

canon came to my bed around 8 and even though it prob wasn't a good idea, how could i say no to his pitiful face?! i heard ledger around 9 so i got up with him. at 5:30, i had text my dad to see if he could bring us some pedialyte, soup, and crackers. the pediatric meals-on-wheels had delivered at some point! ledger had some crackers and pedialyte for breakfast and kept it down.

i laid him back down at 9:45 and checked my phone. my sweet friends had text me from panera and asked if they could bring me some coffee. y'all, i kid you not. an hour before i prayed jokingly that a hazelnut coffee would miraculously appear on my doorstep since i couldn't get out and we were out of milk to make my own. seriously, an answered prayer...and just what a weary mama needed!

the boys slept all morning so i was able to catch up on the house and put away the probably 8ish loads of laundry that had accumulated over the past day. canon woke up around 11 and i got the boy out of my bed just in time. after giving him some more zofran that he couldn't keep down, i decided that it was best to not give him anymore at the time. i was afraid of him losing more fluids. around 1, i got him to take 1 sip every 5ish minutes. in between his constant napping, he was able to keep everything down, including 3 popsicles. early evening, he started running low-grade fever. it wasn't enough for meds really and he was sleeping anyways, but at 10, he seemed to be really restless and uncomfortable so we gave him some tylenol since he had kept everything down for 10 hours. bad idea. immediately, he was sick.

he got a bath and a new pallet. lane said he would sleep out in the living room with him. i went on to bed as i had only slept for about 4 hours saturday night. every 20-40 minutes until 5ish, he was sick. the first couple hours as soon as i heard him crying i would jump up and run in, but eventually i guess i was sleeping too deeply :)

i set my clock for 7:30 so i could get a shower and call the doctor right at 8 to get an appointment. the soonest they could get him in was 10. i went ahead and packed an overnight bag along with some entertainment knowing we would more than likely spend our day, and possibly our night, at the hospital. as soon as our doctor saw him, she knew he was pretty badly dehydrated and sent us on our way to the hospital. as we were leaving the office, he got sick on the exam table. nice.

on the way to the hospital, i stopped to get some coffee. i had already made some at home, but we need a new pot bad because it tasted awful. we made our way to the day hospital, struggling with all our bags and a boy that wanted to be held...and a cup of hot coffee. we got checked in and waited to be called back. when our nurse came to get us, i was gathering our stuff and y'all, i spilled my full cup of coffee ALL over the admissions desk! i felt awful...all over her computer. all over people's charts. all over the floor. i'm such a klutz!

they got his iv started and he settled in for the following 7 hours. he slept for 6.5 hours of that! his pops surprised him by stopping by. canon woke up smiled, tried to sit up, gave up and went back to sleep. i wasn't sure if he would remember him being there, but when he woke up, i asked him who came to see him and he said pops.

at one point he spunked up for about 30 minutes for a cold sprite. we played silly games on my computer and watched cartoons, but it didn't last long. around 5, they redrew his lab, but it hadn't improved hardly at all so she made the call to our pedi and he chose to admit us for the night. seeing how pitiful he still was after 7 hours of fluids made it easier for us to accept it.

we got up to our room at about 6:30, and lane left to get me food (i hadn't drank or eaten anything all day!). canon started asking to eat around that time for the first time in 2.5 days. i was so nervous for him to eat, but he managed a couple of crakers. my mom came up around 8, and brought the boy some charlie's mashed potatoes minus the gravy. he gobbled half the container in no time. she also brought him a goody bag full of small toys, stickers, and paint by water. there was also the cutest, most obnoxious bear ever in there. it sped sang "jesus loves me". anything with a button, canon puts on repeat! oh.my.word!!

around 9, he was crashing fast so my mom and lane said goodnight. we settled into our twin-sized hospital bed for the night. the long night. they came in every 1.5-2 hours. of course, he didn't fully wake up, but he was fussing around when they'd mess with him. at 6, i discovered he had soaked our bed. i didn't think of his diapers getting super full with all the fluids they were pumping in him. yuck.

i woke for the day then and started the waiting game. around 8:30, he was asking to eat. i ordered a bunch of different foods not knowing what would sound good, but he managed to eat half of a biscuit and a whole container of yogurt...and keep it down. a resident came in not long after that. she said his hydration levels looked better today, but they wouldn't send us home until they knew he could eat and drink on his own.

lane came for a visit mid morning, and brought me a breakfast sandwich and coffee. best cup of coffee ever! it's been amazing how similar the 2 throw-up/dehydration/hospital stays have been. both hospitalizations happened on a monday night. last time was the premier of bachelorette. this time dancing with the stars. lane has had ciy meetings tuesday-thursday both times which leaves me single parenting during the recovery phase. ledger has had special grandparent time. it's crazy.

right before lunch, the attending and resident came in, and she told us if he kept lunch down, they'd reevaluate after lunch. i was thinking a couple hours at the max. nope. try 4:15ish. that's when we were told we could come home. at least we got good naps and bonding time. while we were waiting an hour and a half for the nurse to bring us discharge papers, i could tell he was feeling way better because he started getting ornery and wild! i couldn't get out of there fast enough.

this evening, he has played and played. a sweet friend brought us a pot of the best chicken noodle soup yesterday. i asked canon if he was hungry and he said no so i preceded to eat mine. it didn't take long for the boy to figure out what he was missing. he couldn't get enough. i had to get a second bowl because he ate so much of the first one. and he wanted more, but i stopped us before we were both sick! we both had a shower/bath to wash that yucky hospital off, and he went night-night. now i'm sitting in silence ALONE for the first time in 3 days. ahhhh.

so thankful my boys are relatively healthy and on their way back to health. this afternoon, in less than an hour, i heard them call 3 code blue's in the pediatric icu. it really put into perspective our situations. thanks for all the prayers and concerns :)