Let me start by saying that despite all the sickness, complaining, tears, rescheduling, etc, we had a great Christmas and we know we are very blessed. That being said, it was definitely a sick Christmas!
I guess you could say it began on December 17 when Mac spiked a fever out of no where. He came in our room in the middle of the night, and in the middle of my slumber and exhaustion I pulled him into our bed and never even attempted to walk him back to his room. He was very fidgety and wouldn’t lay still. After a few minutes of Mac moving all over the bed I was fully awake, and Albi was too. I knew Albi was about to lose it, so I reached over to put my hand on Mac and try to still him and I realized he was burning up. Albi and both got up, took his temp (over 101) and gave him some Motrin. For the next 3.5 days, the fever remained, but was generally low grade as long as the Motrin was in him. Mac slept a lot, played some and missed the whole last week of school, but by Friday he was doing better with only 1 fever spike. After a quick trip to the doctor, I felt like we were good to go to BHM. The doctor gave me the name of a pediatrician in BHM, “just in case.” It turned out to be a friend of mine and Albi’s and I honestly forgot she was a pediatrician (for some reason I was thinking she was an OBGYN). A few days later I couldn’t be more grateful to have been reminded of Dr. Tapley’s pediatric specialty.
We were supposed to do Christmas with Yaya on Friday afternoon, but victim #1 of the stomach virus was my mom. She called Forrest and I early Friday morning to tell us she had been sick all night, and that we would have to postpone Christmas with her. She was practically in tears but was too weak to really cry. We assured her the kids wouldn’t know the difference and we would celebrate when we got home from BHM.
Victim #2 of the stomach virus was Albi. It hit him on Saturday night while we were at zoo lights. He and my mom had not crossed paths in well over 10 days, so we assume Albi picked up the bug from someone else. We later learned of over 10 different friends/families who had the virus in the same two week period from Birmingham, Pensacola, Tuscaloosa and New Orleans!
Vicki and I called/text Shaw on Sunday morning to let them know Albi was sick. We promised to sanitize the bedroom and bathroom where he had been as well as keep him quarantined until we were sure he was better, but we left the final call to them since they had a family trip planned to Tucson for the day after Christmas. They decided to come on to G and Deeda’s but told Albi he better not get Mallory sick since the purpose of the family trip was for her to play in a national tennis tournament.
Albi was weak and his stomach wasn’t quite right for several days, but he was definitely better and able to interact with the family by last Sunday afternoon.
Monday/Christmas Eve everyone was well.
Christmas morning everyone was well.
As we began to prepare for Christmas lunch, Madeline started feeling nauseous, and Shaw got his first look of panic. By 2pm Madeline was victim #3 of the stomach virus. My about 3:30 Mallory had become victim #4. I think Heather was too busy holding hair and wiping away tears to get angry, but Shaw was definitely mad…not at Albi, but just at the situation. As Madeline got worse and worse and then Mallory, he quickly saw their trip to Tucson and the national tournament that Mallory had worked so hard to get in, slipping down the drain. His baby girl was devastated and Albi couldn’t have felt any worse for somehow spreading the bug despite all the precautions and quarantines.
Madeline gets dehydrated easily and quickly, so I put in a call to Dr. Tapley to see what we should do and/or where we should go to get Madeline fluids if it came to that. She gave us some great advice and continued to check on the girls through the next day.
Unfortunately around 9pm Shaw became victim #5. We were in Tuscaloosa by that point, but from what I got form Heather and Vicki, I think he got it the worst.
The next day Albi’s uncle became victim #6. Even though we had seen him briefly for Christmas lunch, we found out the family he had been with on Christmas Eve came down with the bug too so who knows which side of the family he got it from. Does it really even matter? Either way it blows!
Fast forward to Saturday December 29. Its finally our day to do Christmas with mom. Unfortunately, she called early Saturday morning and asked me to wake Albi up and send him to her house because she needed to take Charles to the ER and he was to weak and dizzy to even stand up! Albi jumped out of bed, and picked up Ed on his way to mom’s house. Thankfully our friend Mitch was the ER dr on call at one of the local hospitals, and he was able to take excellent care of Charles. After being admitted to the hospital, the doctors determined that Charles had a slow bleeding ulcer that could have been present for years. Something caused it start bleeding more profusely a few days prior (maybe the Aleve on an empty stomach) and Charles had been losing a massive amount of blood – hence the weakness – which caused his BP to drop every time he stood up – hence the dizziness. They were able to do a scope and cauterize the ulcer, but he had to stay overnight, so we again postpones Christmas with Yaya and Coste. We finally celebrated the next day at Charles’ insistence.
Yes we had a sickly Christmas break, but its better than no Christmas at all. I kept thinking of all the families from New Port who spent Christmas without their sons and daughters, and I remembered how blessed we all were. Celebrations were delayed and trips were cancelled, but we were able to spend Christmas together. God has a plan, and I’m so grateful his plan has given me a very wonderful and overall healthy family!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
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