Pukapalooza '09 (Imagine the Devil Horns I'm Making with My Hands while Screaming Rock On)

To start things off, I just really need to say one thing. I love having a sense of humor. I really hope pride doesn't come before the fall in this case, because laughter really is the best medicine and has been the one thing I have been able to attach my sanity to.

I really need to be careful about the things that I post. I have created somewhat of a Murphy's Law for myself. In particular, please refer to my Secret Agent Mom blog. Somewhere in my Lessons Learned it states, "When you think you can't take anymore, you do." At what point in my life am I going to tell myself to SHUT UP, and then actually do it.

After having been sick for a few weeks, I finally went to the doctors on Monday night. Slacker me, who didn't feel like she needed to go to the doctor actually had bronchitis and a sinus infection. Felix went with me and HE had a sinus infection, throw all four kids into the mix with upper respiratory illnesses and we sound like a Tuberculosis convention.

We took it pretty easy on Tuesday and Wednesday, hoping for that whole "Getting Well" thing I hear so much about (I'm pretty sure it is a myth at this point). We were making some progress. The kids were outside riding scooters and enjoying the warm weather that had finally graced our presence. Promptly at 6 o'clock, we ate dinner...because Savannah and I wanted to go shoe shopping and be back in time for American Idol.

Savannah and I scarfed our food and headed out the door. Now, I believe I mentioned before I am the anti-girl. I mean I PMS and have mood swings and all of the other fun stuff, but somewhere along the lines of it all, my DNA somehow dropped the shopping, make-up and dressing up genomes. YIKES. I HATE SHOPPING. Fortunately, it skipped a generation and both of my daughters were blessed with fully functioning DNA...all the girl parts and everything.

So while shoe shopping, I pick out 4 or 5 perfectly acceptable pairs of flip flops....in like 2 minutes. Savannah is having her shoe size measured, and then perusing, just so she could find the absolutely perfect pair of tennis shoes that would tell the world she arrived. So like 20 minutes later, I told her she could have the dress shoes with the tennis shoes if we could pay, like now.

Just as we were walking out the door to head home, Felix called to inform me that Caleb had thrown up and could I please hurry home? So we fly home to find Caleb laying on the shower floor with the water cascading over him. Felix was dutifully watching over him to make sure he was drowning or anything.

I get him out of the shower, dressed and wrapped in a blanket. 10 minutes later as we were settling in to watch AI, he looked at me and said, I have to throw up again. He got off of my bed, went to the bathroom and threw up in the toilet. What a good boy. He even wiped the seat off to get all of the little splashes cleaned up. When he was done, I went to pick him up and realized how incredibly hot he was. We tried to cool him down, but when we had a repeat of the perfect puker, I knew it was time to take him in. His breathing had gone completely down hill and there was a noticeably crackly sound coming with each and every breath. That is what cinched Felix deciding to come with me.

I put Caleb in the car and ran in to get my purse and when I came back out, he was throwing up again. Felix drove to the Insta-care while I dutifully stayed next to my poor, sick baby holding the magic bowl. When we got there, we were able to get right back and see a doctor immediately. They took one look at him, one listen of him and sent us back right away for x-rays. We thought, as did they, that he most likely had pneumonia. Whatever he had, he made sure to christen the x-ray table for them. YAY Caleb.

We went back and waited for the results. Surprisingly, it wasn't pneumonia. He had Bronchiolitis. Bronchiolitis is Toddler RSV. RSV is for 0-2 years and Bronciolitis is for 2+, but it is the same virus. Okay...been there, done that, bought the t-shirt, tie dyed it and then put it in a drawer and pretended like it never happened.

Caleb had actually had a situation similar to this when he was about 16-17 months old. Unfortunately for him, he dehydrates very easily and because of his tendency to do this we all agreed that admitting him for the night and observation was probably a REALLY, REALLY good idea. My mom took Felix home to the other monkeys and I headed to Provo with Hurly-burly.

As we were pulling in to the hospital parking lot, a little voice from the back of the car said, "Mom, I think I'm sick or something." AWWWWWWW, poor baby. We got everything done, admitted, signed, sealed, delivered...and puked on, whatever. As we got Caleb plugged up to the machines and his oxygen levels were hovering around 85 and his pulse was up to 175. Basically, he was beginning to dehydrate. DUH. They flowed a lot of fluids, and quick. So while Caleb was drifting in and out of consciousness, I was wide awake.

At around 1 am Caleb woke up and had a major fit. Something about, "Don't look at me. Don't talk to me and don't touch me." I don't know where he gets it from. I really don't. What the fit did do for him, is that it forced him to cough out a whole lot of goop. Once that was out, his oxygen sats normalized and his breathing improved. His pulse was still high, as was his fever, so we Tylenol-ed him up. Once it kicked in around 2-ish, I tried to sleep. YEAH RIGHT.

As I drifted off at about 2:55, I was ready for a few hours of sleep. Oh, sorry, I mean minutes, 5 minutes. Because at 3 am the doctor came in. REALLY? Oh yeah...

After that, I was done...every time I lay down, someone either came in, a machine beeped or Caleb woke up. I gave up. So I played games on my cell phone until my battery died. I know how to rock it.

So we enjoyed the morning, playing games and blowing bubbles, but refusing to eat or drink. It really isn't that unusual for Caleb. He doesn't like to stop to eat. Eating is something that takes away from playtime. Finally the doctor came back and said as long as he could eat and drink and keep everything down for 2 hours we could go home. I cajoled and cajoled and got him to eat an entire bowl of soup. Then I got to watch him throw up and throw up.

So we now get to stay another night. Okay. I sent Felix home with the kids and started to get Caleb set up for the night. As I was setting up my computer to watch a movie, Caleb leaned over to tell me something and promptly fell out of bed, ripping his IV completely out of his arm.

Okay, mental picture time. There is a poor pale little boy, blood and guts (in the form of IV fluids) and me on the phone. I quickly hung up and ran to Caleb to comfort him while pinching off the IV to stop the spray. As I reached for the Nurse Call button, I finally had to just stop and sit down and laugh. What I had just witnessed, was like a total G rated Horror Movie. Think of it...every last item.

1. The first one to fall ALWAYS spills blood.
2. There were scary needles (just not on some wackos face).
3. A wiggly, tuby thing that was leaking every where...totally like the rain on the leaves or from some psychos apartment bathtub upstairs.

ALL OF THE ELEMENTS WERE THERE...

Caleb was upset at first, but eventually, he got into the groove and without knowing why...had a good little chuckle himself.

Lessons Learned
1. Laughter really is one of the worlds best medicines.
2. I think he is feeling better he totally scarfed down his chocolate cake...forget the turkey and vegetables...that's my boy.
3. I hate throwing up...I really hate being thrown up on.
4. I am very lucky to have a 3 year WILLING to laugh at nothing, something or everything...whatever the occasion calls for.
5. As bumpy as the road is....life is good.