THE WEEK FROM HELL

This post is mostly just a rant and rave and blowing off of emotional steam. Feel free to skip it unless you like reading about Olympic pity parties because I'm getting a gold medal for this one.

In January, Dan had to go to Boston on business for a week. It seems like every time we go out of town. or Dan has to go out of town, we get sick. We got H1N1 last year while Dan was out of town too.

This year, true to form, we got a nasty stomach bug. It started on a Thursday, Sara woke up puking in her bed. I thought it was just a one time thing so I changed her and the bed and we went back to sleep. Thirty minutes later she's crying a puking again. Changed her and the bed, thirty minutes later, same thing. Finally I quit changing her bed and I just put her on the couch wrapped in about 5 towels and it was her throw up station. She threw up every half hour for about 9 hours. It was so pitiful that by the end of it, she couldn't even hold up her head.

Dan took the next day off to help me get some sleep since I was up all night with her. Finally by Friday she could hold down apple juice and luckily we didn't have to take her to the doctor. She still wasn't able to eat anything other than crackers all through the weekend.

Sunday was the day that Dan was leaving. About four hours before he had to get on a plane I started throwing up every half hour. Sara's had move from her stomach to her intestines and she was having really bad diarrhea every half hour. Dan took care of us up until the last minute he had to leave. He got us 5 boxes of popsicles, 2 gatoraides, and lots of soda crackers.

I ended up throwing up for about 10 hours straight even with nothing in my stomach. It is so horrible to be pregnant and very hungry and yet to not even be able to take a sip of water for 10 hours. When I did get sleep I dreamed of giant meals only to wake up to realize I couldn't have anything. I really think if it had lasted 4 more hours, I would have had to check into the hospital but luckily after 10 hours I could drink water again. Sara and I spent the next 4 days eating nothing but popsicles and crackers.

On Monday, I realized that the keys were locked in my car, so even if we needed to go to the doctor we were stuck. I called the pop-a-lock people and they were finally able to come by the end of the day on Monday.

In the mean time, I had gotten a notice for Jury Duty for Wednesday of that week. I had previously sent letters and filled out an on-line excuse forum saying I was a primary care provider. So being a bit confused I called the Court Clerk and she said I would have to write and fax a letter directly to the judge describing my situation. Luckily my car was now unlocked and I was able to get to Kinko's to fax a letter off. I only had to throw up once in the car on the way there but I was just glad I didn't throw up in Kinko's.

I faxed the letter saying I was a primary care provider and there was no one to watch Sara for the possible 3 month term that my Jury call stated. However I got a call from the jury clerk that said that the Judge was requesting me to show up anyway on Wednesday and that I had to plead my case to him in person.

By law, we showed up in court on Wednesday. I have had nothing but crackers and popsicles to eat for three days at this point and I'm morning sick and still nauseous from the stomach flu and extremely weak. I have no idea how I was even able to drive to Orem, it was some kind of miracle that day that I even could get out of bed.

We had to wait an hour watching juror orientation videos and just sitting around. Sara and I met the most wonderful woman who largely entertained Sara the whole time. She was showing her pictures of her grand kids and telling her stories. Sara was telling her everything that had ever happened to her, not leaving out any details. Like the time she pooped on the floor and she even said, "Yesterday, Momma was puking everywhere!". The lady thought it was hilarious. All 40 of the other jurors got to hear the stories too.

After about an hour we finally got to go back and see the Judge in his chambers. The two lawyers were back there too. He gave me a speech about how important jury service is while I'm holding back from throwing up all over him. Then I had to plead my case and when I did, the lawyers looked amazed I was even there. The Judge then asked them, "Well, what do you think, should we excuse her?". They looked at him like you total a-hole, why did you make her come in. Anyway, we were out of there and on our way home after an hour. Also, we got paid $18 just for showing up. I would have paid $100 not to have to go that day.

Two days later, Dan finally arrived home from Boston and I was ready to totally collapse in the bed for two full days, and that's just what I did. Luckily, he does not go out of town very often!

I guess we didn't get our fill of being sick because now we've rung in February with a little strep throat and RSV for me and for Sara some RSV, double ear infection, and borderline pneumonia. At this point, I'm not sure what else we could possibly catch, thankfully we've both had a flu shot. I'm ready to totally just live in a bubble for the next 6 months and not even interact with the world. My main problem is because I'm pregnant and because I'm pre-hypertensive, I can't take any meds or breathing treatments for asthma. I'm stuck with just tylenol, which only goes so far when your cough sounds like seals barking.

Now for the bright spots, we are finally getting better a week later and feeling like humans again. I had my second prenatal appointment on Feb 10th and I got to hear the heartbeat. It was super exciting, even the second time around! I wish Dan could have been there. My next appointment is March 17th and it's the ultrasound appointment, so we get to find out what the sex is!! I'm so excited that I can hardly wait.