Over one week last month, the Chocolate family (save Drake, somehow!) got hit with the stomach bug. It was as bad as it sounded and it ended up with a trip to the ER for little Juliet. This is the short time line that took us from fully functioning to near death.

A typical day. It was Mr. Chocolate’s birthday and MLK day so we had a lovely day off for everyone. After dinner, we had our wonderful Cold Stone Creamery coffee cake (Mr Chocolate’s favorite cake) and I put the kids to bed. I got on with my evening of chores, mindless Internet, and TV. At close to midnight, right before I was headed to bed, I heard a lot of coughing coming from Juliet’s bedroom. I decided to go in and check on her, and as soon as I opened the door, without even turning on the light, I knew something was wrong. The smell of the room hit me immediately and when I turned on the lights, I found Juliet sitting in her rocking chair rocking and coughing covered in what I can only imagine is what an exorcism would look like. Her hair, clothes, bed, face, everything was covered in what else — brown thanks to the chocolate cake from earlier. I was so shocked she hadn’t made any noise or come out to tell me she had been sick.

I called Mr Chocolate to help me and hurried Juliet into the bath while Mr. Chocolate tackled the clean up of the sheets and her room. Juliet, for what it’s worth, was in fine spirits and happy to be awake and to be with Mr. Chocolate and me. After she was cleaned up we let her sit downstairs and watch TV with Mr. Chocolate while she waited for her lovey to be cleaned. She puked a few more times in the interim and eventually ended up coming to bed with us. For the rest of the night, I monitored her or rushed her off to the bathroom to throw up. At one point the bed sheets got it and needless to say, no one got any rest whatsoever.

On Tuesday morning I rushed Drake off to school as quickly as I could get him out the door and spent most of the day trying to keep Juliet happy with her tablet and isolated in our bedroom so as not to get Fiona sick too. Juliet had thrown up at around 8 AM right after Drake left and then managed to fall asleep for a short amount of time. By the time Drake had come from school she had finally been throw up free and I allowed her to eat some crackers and a banana and have some water. I was praying we were finally seeing the back end of this thing (oh how naive I was). Juliet seemed in better spirits after eating and by bed time went right into her own room to sleep. I checked on her a few times after she went to sleep and right before I went to bed, and all seemed fine and I was happy to get some rest finally.

ADVERTISEMENT

On Wednesday, Juliet had been throw up free for 24 hours but I decided to let her stay at home one more day since she ended up sleeping later than usual that morning and I thought it better to not wake her. I kept her mostly away from Fiona that day and allowed her to eat some waffles, cereal without milk, and a few blueberries. She was doing fine and seeming more like herself, that that night I decided to take her to dance class instead of skipping. Everything was fine at dance until 5 minutes before class ended when suddenly Juliet was escorted out by her teacher who said she had thrown up a little in class.  There was a little stain on Juliet’s dance outfit so we headed home. Since her teacher said it wasn’t much, I figured maybe it was just a fluke since Juliet has a light gag reflex in general, and that perhaps it was just the excitement of class.

When we got home Juliet had fallen asleep in her car seat so I let Drake and Fiona in the house and was talking to Mr. Chocolate for a few minutes with the garage door open when I heard Juliet from the car. By the time I got there she was in an all out puke fest covering herself and her car seat. It was another nightmare as Mr Chocolate and I tried to get everything clean and take care of Juliet, while simultaneously trying to make sure Fiona and Drake didnt get close or touch anything and dinner was burning on the stove. I was so shocked that Juliet had been fine for 24 hours only to have the monster re-surge on us with such vengeance.

After we got Juliet off to bed and dinner on the table for everyone, the second worst thing happened… I started to feel unwell. I had not eaten anything for dinner because of the chaos, but I knew something was wrong. After putting the kids to bed I spent the night in a weary, wary state. It was a horrible combo of dizziness and queasiness and around 11, I succumbed to the idea my body was starving. I had a small bowl of chicken noodle soup, went to bed and around midnight I woke up and the rest is history. I was in and out of the bathroom for hours and I can’t even describe the pain and horror that went down in there. After my third of fourth trip to the bathroom, I told Mr. Chocolate I was on death’s door. I asked if he could stay home the next day because I wasn’t going to make it, but he wasn’t sure since he didn’t have any plans in for a substitute teacher. A short while later it was decided for sure when he ran to the bathroom puking his guts out too. On and off that night Mr. Chocolate and I took turns hugging the toilet. Neither of us slept, we were both in cold sweats, and we both knew we would die tomorrow having to take care of the kids. We racked our brains to think of anyone we could ask to come help us out, but of course my in laws were on their annul month trip in Florida and my mother was on a business trip. We were out of luck.

On Thursday morning I almost died getting out of bed to get Drake to school. I threw him out the door as fast as I could and then went back to bed. I was so scared about what to do when the baby woke up. I had been up all night and had not heard any sick signs from her yet, but I wouldn’t be able to keep her away from me as I could with Drake. I also couldn’t even stand up, so how was I going to take care of her and Juliet. Mr Chocolate wasn’t in any better shape himself. When I was finally able to get up again and get to the baby, she had also thrown up a little in her bed ending the need for isolating at least. Both Juliet and Fiona had much better energy that day than either Mr. Chocolate and I did despite also being sick.

Mr. Chocolate and I basically took turns dying on the couch downstairs with the girls while the other got to sleep upstairs. My wonderful friend called me and when she heard about our plight brought over some supplies and dinner (soup for the sickies, mac and Cheese for Drake) so we didn’t have to worry about preparing a meal for Drake in our state. The best part of the whole day was when the baby went down for her nap and the whole family got to sleep for a blissful 2 hours before I had to get to the bus stop for Drake.

In all this time Juliet had taken a small turn for the worse. She couldn’t keep much down and would vomit up even liquids.  -After her small incident of throwing up in the morning, Fiona had seemed to bounce back and I gave her a small bottle of milk which she kept down fine. I called the doctor and was told Juliet needed to go to the ER for fluid replenishment. Mr Chocolate and I both wanted to die right there as neither of us was in the shape to drive. We debated getting an ambulance before calling our BIL to see if he could come drive us. He did of course and it was off to the ER for Juliet.

Despite her illness, Juliet’s spirits were high and she was excited about this exciting trip with her uncle and me. Once there she was less happy about the blood draws, face mask, and IV. It was a long day, about 4 hours at the ER, and I had a hard time sitting up the whole time feeling the way I did. Juliet watched her videos on my phone and was happy about the apple juice. The doctor said her blood work came back great but the fluids seemed like a good idea because of her size and the amount she threw up overall. When we finally got home at 11pm, Juliet went right to bed and I collapsed too.

Friday Drake was still miraculously healthy and everyone seemed to be on the mend at last. Mr Chocolate took the day off to recover and the fluids really made a difference in Juliet as she finally remained throw up free that day. She was able to eat small amounts and keep it down and Fiona seemed to be fine too. I was starting to get back with it and thought maybe we were finally out of the woods (famous last words). That night at midnight I was woken up by Fiona over the monitor coughing. Walking in her room was not as bad as Juliet, but here we were again at midnight with sheets and a baby to clean. Mr Chocolate ended up staying up with her til 4 AM, as apparently she was wide awake and happy after her bath.

I woke up the next day to a still healthy Drake who went to Chinese school and my mom’s house after to get out of the house and a finally recovered Juliet it seemed. Fiona’s midnight throw up was indeed the last time in the house and by Sunday everyone seemed to finally be improved or fully recovered at last. Drake miraculously dodged the bullet that massacred the rest of us and Juliet got a cool story to share at school on Monday about her ER trip. I spent the better half of the rest of the week scrubbing and disinfecting what felt like every inch of the house.  his was a living nightmare and one I pray we never have again, as well as one I doubt we will ever forget.