Stomach bug siege: Day 5

Updated below.

Since I picked Delaney up from school on Thursday and she barfed in the car I've left the house ONE time. Granted, that one time was to attend (stag) the company Christmas party on Saturday night. Roger stayed home with our sick girl. Funny thing was, nearly every single person at the party congratulated me on having such a sweet, sensitive husband who would selflessly stay home to babysit our sick kid while his wife partied it up (sans alcohol, of course) one last time before new baby arrives. Little do they know, Roger is the anti-social member of our household and he would much prefer mopping up barf to making polite, stilted conversation with co-workers and acquaintances any day. The constant shrieks I heard of, "Oh, that Roger, staying home with a sick kid for you! What a guy!" and "Isn't he thoughtful to babysit? You've got a keeper there!" started to wear on my sober nerves. Still, I did get to leave the house and I was grateful for the fresh air and the ample dinner buffet.

Delaney's feeling much better today. Her fever went away on Saturday afternoon and she hasn't gotten sick since Saturday night. But now we've entered the sinister side of the illness, the one that comes from the other end. As anyone who's been through it knows, it's perfectly dreadful. The child is, for all intents and purposes, happy and playful and eating once again. It's just that the pleasant return of her as a happy, little being is constantly, and without warning, being punctuated by horrific episodes of diarrhea. I'm afraid to leave the house to run the myriad of errands on my ever-growing to-do list for fear of it catching me off guard.

But, as bad as this illness has been, I think that having gone into battle with it once before prepared me to handle it better this time. I freaked out less, that's for sure. And, things could have been worse. Delaney could have gotten sick while I was in the hospital. She could have gotten sick right after we brought new baby home and passed it to him. Roger and I could have been sick all weekend with it too. Luckily, none of these things happened. Small mercies. That's what we have to hold on to sometimes. And sometimes that's all it takes to get through another difficult day.

Updated to add: F*ck small mercies. I just changed my third diarrhea diaper today after being sprayed in the putrid stuff and fighting with Delaney to get her changed and cleaned up. WHY can diapers absorb a gallon of pee but not even a smidgen of this other stuff? And, my other question to seasoned mothers out there for future reference: How do you deal with diarrhea when a child is potty trained? We aren't there yet but we will be (God willing) one day. Do you turn to diapers for their limited help for the duration of the illness? How on earth do you contain the stuff? I'm clueless about this one.

Comments

[MamaChristy]

Pull ups. They don't help *much* when it comes to the, um, back end of an illness, but at least you don't have to wash them and they can continue to wear them if they make it to the bathroom in time.

[Summer]

With a potty trained kid, I just cross my fingers and hope he'll get to the bathroom in time. Then again, I'm someone who did cloth diapers, so I'm not hugely distressed by the idea of putting poopy clothes or bedding into the washer. We've had several illness of this nature during the couple of years he's been trained, and only two accidents, both during one illness that manifested ONLY as mudbutt. Unfortunately, both accidents were at school (pre-K). My mortification knew no bounds.

[Andy]

I was wondering the same thing as I was reading your post. Dear god, what are we going to do if she ever gets it? We had a bout of your round one on Saturday, but seemed to avoid the round two. I think pull-ups is a good idea.

[moxiemomma]

so hi! :) i've been so MIA. but pull-ups are definitely the way to go. we had that problem with the boy once and pull-ups gave him the security to have the confidence to make it to the potty. on the occasions that he didn't quite get there in time they provided me with a tremendous sense of relief!

also, on the insurance issue above--thank GOODNESS your friend told you about that little deductible issue! what a mess that could have turned out to be.