Where've you been, my darlings?

So the stomach flu has hit this part of the state with a vengeance. Or at least our part. I had so much posting to do about holiday goodness, but instead, I'm going to fill you gentle readers in on my activities from January 5-12, 2007.

• Friday am: V wakes up vomiting. We are out of town, but after five hours of throwing up we decide we better get her home in case she needs to be hospitalized
• Friday 5pm: V admitted to the children's ward of our local hospital, having vomited over 50 times in 10 hours. In her iron crib with a plastic canopy, I try to get her to play "Boy in a Bubble" until I realize it's not funny.
• Saturday 5pm: V gets discharged, and is much better. I go to to the grocery for jello and pedialyte and come home sick. Violently sick. Stomach pains so severe I repent for sins I haven't even committed yet sick.
• Sunday am: V throws up in her crib, Shaun runs downstairs to call my mom, then sits, trying to take deep breaths, in his chair. (I should note for those of you unfamiliar that Shaun has deep, dreadful anxiety, and much of it is connected to vomiting).
• Sunday at 5: My mom goes home. I feel better, and V has settled down. Shaun proceeds to get sick.
• Monday, 3:30am: Shaun, V, and I go to the ER because Shaun can't stop vomiting. V throws up in the ER. I take her home, sleep 4 hours, and call my mom. Shaun's mom comes Monday night.
• Tuesday: V keeps getting better, I go to work for 4 hours, garner pity with my generally pathetic appearence. I finally get Shaun's psychologist in to see him. Shaun's mom and I hang out, talk about how cool V is, complain about George Bush.
• Wednesday, 6am: My mother-in-law calls out from the guest room to tell me she's sick. I drive the hour and half (twice, for three hour total) to their house before noon to go get my father-in-law, because they only have one car and I can't have a sick mother-in-law on my hands too.
• Thursday: My mother-in-law has gall bladder surgery. We still don't know if she had the flu or if it was just a horribly timed gall bladder attack.
• Friday, 9 pm: Shaun's released from the hospital, but not before I bring V over and let her yell in the hallways near his room, so they have to hurry up the discharge process.

Sorry if this was self-indulgent/not helpful. It helps me to sketch it out, and I feel a little less like this has actually been a 2-month long nightmare when I can see it in a weekly schedule. Shaun is still only working at about 75%, and is exhausted and barely eating, but he's recovering. V is much better, and I just haven't had any time to be sick. There were times in the last two weeks when I felt like I was only still moving forward by gritting my teeth incredibly hard and clenching every muscle in my neck.

So, for those of you wishing for an update from this house, you didn't really want to know, did you? Please if you've tried to contact me recently, know I'm working on getting back to folks and gradually working my way through the backlog. Classes started last week (in the midst of all the horrors) and I'm just now feeling prepared to teach.

In the meantime, a little picture to cheer us all up. Here is V and my mama, who was the only one left standing after all this. I don't know how we would've made it through without her. I am reminded again how good it is to have family just 30 minutes away that I can call, anytime, day or night, and just know they will help make it better.

Hope you had a blessed holiday season, and may this stomach flu give you and yours a wide berth. And may 2007 get better from here on out.