Mr. Sickie

Everett has always had a high tolerance for discomfort and pain, and at times this has made it difficult to tell how sick he is, or if he really is sick at all. He has also never thrown up (besides spit-up, which doesn't count). I wondered to myself the other day when it would happen that he would be sick enough to throw up.

Last night, I got my answer! He did not show any signs of feeling uncomfortable or being unhappy during the day and I had no idea anything was wrong in his little belly. At around 6-ish, I decided it would be fun to try to dance with him since he likes it so much but he wasn't willing so I just danced by myself. While I was completing a spin I heard a strange noise and looked at him in time to see a gigantic rush of 25 gallons of vomit (I swear) streaming from his little mouth (breakfast, lunch, and dinner, so he must have been uncomfortable all day). The funny thing was, the second it was over his face showed no signs of paying attention to the fact that anything had even happened.

I gave him a bubble bath, put him in his pajamas, and cleaned up the mess, realizing that with the amount he had expelled from his body, there was no way he had anything left. But, I was wrong. Needless to say, Everett ended up in only a diaper, on our extra vinyl crib mattress (sans bedsheets), watching The Fox and the Hound. I did crank up the heat so he wouldn't freeze, and so the poor little guy spent the next few hours periodically dry-heaving up bile. He looked so pale and miserable, and aside from the very occasional whimper did not complain or whine.

Of course he couldn't go to sleep while he felt that way, so when it got to be after 9:30 or so, I turned out all the lights and layed him down on the couch with me (by this time he was in pajamas). He just lay there, very weak and pale, but every so often he would sit up and start heaving bile again. I felt so terrible for him.

Joel got home very late from work with pedialyte and nutrigrain bars (and gatorade because he insisted it is a cure-all, but really I think he got it mostly for himself). Everett finally went to bed and woke up a couple of hours later just screaming his little face off because he was so desperately hungry, so we gave him a little pedialyte in a bottle and put him back to bed. A few minutes later he resumed screaming and when I went in to check on him he was angrily waving the empty bottle in my face. What a funny kid. I was worried he wouldn't be able to keep it down, but he has been able to, and even though this morning he is doing so much better I still didn't think it would be wise to attempt church given his condition last night.

I am sorry for all the details, and I'm sure no one wants to hear about it but me, but it was interesting to see how well Everett deals with illness. He is an amazing little trooper.

His illness was also strange to me because it gave every sign of being food poisoning (they say a short stomach bug like that is really a food-borne illness), especially since he is so drastically better this morning, but he and I ate the same thing all day (without exception) and I have had no symptoms whatsoever. Now I suppose we'll never know!