Life after Maui

I couldn't decide what to title this post. Several would have been fitting: "The Week from You-Know-Where", "Enough Vomit to Last a Lifetime", "Emily, the Puke Machine", "The Longest Week of my Life", "Being a Homemaker Bites Sometimes", or "Amy, the Human Barf Bag".

So, we got back from Hawaii on the 17th, said our good-byes, and made our FINAL MOVE to our new home that very day. We live in Sahaurita, a little town 15 minutes south of Tucson. I compare it to how Queen Creek (for all you Arizonans) used to be. A little town outside of civilization where there's not too much around by way of shopping, restaurants, post offices, or pretty much anything.

My first day of real life (Danny gone to work and just the kids and I at home) began normally. Emily actually slept till 8:00, which was sweet. But at 8:30 after she'd had some milk and strawberries, she threw it all up. This was the first time she'd thrown up in her life. She didn't stop thowing up (day or night) for 2.5 days until we ended up in the E.R. on Wednesday at about 5:30p.m. She threw up on just about everything that first day - booster seat, couch, pillow, carpet, carseat, bed, me, especially Dallin's stuffed animals. Lots of changes of clothes for both of us and lots of cleaning and lots of laundry. I finally got smart and would just sit by her or lay in bed with her holding a big barf bowl. To top it off, Dallin had a blow-out that first day and it got all over me. A big chunk fell off my shirt onto my foot right between my toes where my flip flop was. Just the icing on the cake. It was awesome.

Poor Emily. She did a great job and hardly complained, except for being thirsty all the time and being tired (we'd gotten little sleep for a couple nights in a row). Since she was just lying on the couch all day, I put in her favorite movie: Cinderella, the only kid's movie we own (our kids don't watch very much T.V. at all - until last week). Can I tell you how sick of that movie I am? Those songs are still running through my head! But anything to make her happy in her misery. By the time we got to the E.R. on Wednesday Ems was so weak and gaunt, she looked awful. And I was seeing specks of blood in her vomit from her esophagus. That's what made me decide not to try and wait this thing out any longer. We didn't have TV or internet yet, I don't know a single person or any neighbors, I didn't know any roads or how to get anywhere, I didn't know where anything was - including a doctor's office, an urgent care clinic, or a hospital. It was a horrible feeling.

Once Danny got a computer at work, he could look some of that stuff up. We went into Tucson to an urgent care clinic first, but they said we should just go to the hospital because she'd need an I.V. and because of the blood, both of which they couldn't help us with. We were tipped off (a tender mercy) by a fellow urgent care patient to go to Tucson Medical Center instead of a closer hospital because it was better for kids. Inspite of the long drive further into Tucson, we were so glad we went. They had a pediatric E.R. and we got right in. They did a great job with Emily and even put on yes, you guessed it, Cinderella just for her. She got two different I.V. solutions and got rehydrated enough not to have to get admitted. She was very brave through it all. They told us she had some virus and that it's going around. We were there for six hours and got home at about 12:30a.m. She slept all night without throwing up and was mostly back to herself the next day. Needless to say, it was quite the ordeal. I wish I would've had my camera while we were there, not to exploit Emily in her low moment, but just to document the event. Her in the hospital bed, her arm all wrapped up with the I.V. in it, etc. I don't have any pictures, but that's okay. We're just so glad it's all over, that it was nothing life-threatening, that she's all better, and that Dallin didn't get it.