Sick Week

Just a week after Brandon got laid off from EA (April 29th), Lucy got sick on a Sunday after coming home from church. This is not an uncommon occurrence - it seems like every once in a while, Lucy comes down with a stomach bug that causes vomiting and diarrhea and lasts about 24 hours. The only difference with this latest one is that it lasted almost all week.

While there was a time when this might have been very stressful for me, it actually was kinda a nice break. Lucy is pretty mellow when she is sick and fortunately, this particular incidence only included a couple episodes of vomiting that very first day. Other than that (and some very soft stools), she mostly just slept and watched movies.

As sad and pathetic as a sick child can be, I tried to look on the bright side and capitalize on all the free time I had to clean up and organize around the house and get some cooking done. Like this orzo pasta salad with roasted vegetables, feta cheese, and pine nuts from Barefoot Contessa - YUM! Lucy would only eat the little orzo pasta, thinking it was rice and wouldn't touch anything else in there, except maybe the pine nuts.

Thanks for the recipe, Kim!

I sorely missed the gym this week because I couldn't bring a sick child to the daycare there. So that was a big downside. The other huge downside was that we had Lucy's first physical therapy appointment that was her initial evaluation about her toe walking and tight heel cords that her pediatrician was worried about from her three year doctor appointment. I really should have cancelled the appointment but I didn't realize how sick Lucy was. It wasn't the most productive appointment but the physical therapist told me she got all the information she needed and we made two more follow-up appointments for Lucy to receive more physical therapy.

By Wednesday, I was getting a little concerned that Lucy hadn't bounced back yet and had barely eaten going on four days so we made an appointment to see her pediatrician. Turns out she was just really dehydrated in addition to the stomach bug that she had and I was just too dim to realize it (one of my "duh!" moments). The doctor recommended that I make her drinks a little more palatable and pick up whatever she would drink just to keep her hydrated like juice, sports drinks, and even soda (we don't really drink anything besides water and milk in our house). It might have killed me just a little inside to pick up those things without any good sales and coupons but hey, we do what we need to do.

Lucy was ecstatic to have "pink drink" (Gatorade) and soda (7Up) and seemed to perk right up. In addition to the "treat" drinks, the doctor also recommended that I give Lucy really easily digestible foods that would bind her stool like white bread, white crackers, and bananas and avoid dairy so I had to pick up almond milk and coconut milk for her try (neither of which she liked). And it ended up that even though the white bread was quite a novelty because we only get wheat bread, she wasn't super interested in eating it. I however, ended up eating just about the whole bag of white bread in just a few days time - that stuff is so addicting! But on the bright side of our doctor/shopping excursion, Lucy seemed to be back to herself by that evening.

Just why is it that as soon as you bring your kid to the doctor, they get better immediately even when the doctor didn't really do anything? And why is it that I, as a parent, can't seem to recall this common sense information about keeping your child hydrated when she is vomiting and having diarrhea and giving her simple things to eat? I guess it's been a while since she was that sick. And I didn't really pay attention to how much (or how little) she was drinking because I just assumed that if she was thirsty, she would just ask for something to drink. I suppose this will not be the last time I feel like a foolish mother. At least now, my pantry is fully stocked with Gatorade should the need arise again.