Wild Wednesday Night

Well, it started out like any other day. Emily and I woke up, got ready for the day and then met with a couple of friends for lunch at McDonalds. Emily ate more than any of us (two adults and another child) and then we went grocery shopping at Walmart. Nothing too exciting there.

We had a hurried dinner around 7:00pm, but Em didn't eat much, claiming that her food would make her tummy hurt. I didn't press the issue, particularly since she was still willing to eat candy. At 7:30, I left for music rehearsal at church. Andrew had Emily duty and they watched videos together and then he put her in bed.

I got home around 10:00pm , said "Hi" to Andrew and then headed upstairs to change into my pjs with the hopes of going back downstairs, grabbing a cold drink and relaxing for a few minutes. It was not to be.

As I walked upstairs, I hear Emily crying a little, which really isn't all that unusual as she still fights bedtime. I changed into my pjs and got ready to go back downstairs, but something about the way she would cry for a minute, then stop, then start again...made me decide to check in on her. I'm glad I did. She was almost incoherent, rolling around, crying every minute or so and complaining that her tummy hurt. She was obviously not feeling good, plus she had a fever over 102. So I called Andrew up to sit with her while I called the Dr. to see whether we should get her checked out. After taking forever to get through, the on-call doc agreed that we should probably take her to the ER to rule out anything more than a tummy bug, especially since she was complaining that her tummy hurt to the touch in the middle and on one side.

So, Andrew and I took her in our bedroom, he held her while I changed back into my clothes and then I took my turn holding Em. Almost immediately, she vomited ALL over one side of me. Oh joy....but at least it didn't happen in her bed for once. So, we cleaned up as much as possible, I changed clothes again and we headed off to the hospital.

As we were turning into the ER parking area, an announcement came over the radio that we were under a tornado watch (did I mention that it was lightening and raining like crazy already) and that the counties around us were under a tornado warning (as in take shelter immediately). Oh Great!

So we parked in the garage, got out and I stood at the check-in window while Andrew held Emily. About the time that I was trying to talk to the receptionist, Emily started puking all over Andrew and herself again. Poor guy and girl. They had to sit there, covered in yuck, until we could get a room.

We finally got to go back and get Miss Em checked out. This included a temperature reading that wasn't so pleasant (if you get my drift) during which Emily kept crying, "Just put my diaper back on", a blood draw (her first) while Andrew and I held her down, X-rays and a physical exam by the doctor. Then we had to wait for a urine analysis. They wanted to know if she would pee in a cup...Yeah Right! We tried, and failed, at that. There was more vomit, more crying, more fever and finally a special "U-bag" to help catch her urine. If that didn't work, we were going to have to do a catheter....not anyone's idea of fun.

To make a long story short, after some tylenol that we forced her to take and finally some phenergan to stop the vomiting, it was determined that she just had a bad tummy bug. The phenergan was GOOD stuff, though a VILE smelling and looking green. It completely stopped the vomiting and knocked the poor kid out cold.

So all in all, we spent five and a half hours in the ER (from 11:00 pm to 4:30 am), had tornados raging just south of us and got vomited on. But at least Emily is on the mend again, after spending all day yesterday on the couch.

I can only imagine the next time we will have so much fun...oh wait, that'll be the day the bill comes!