Things have been pretty quiet around here lately, and for good reason. 2018 hasn’t exactly gotten off to a stellar start for our family, and if I can be blunt, the last few weeks have been pretty brutal for us all, but specifically for me in particular.
Allow me to catch you guys up to speed… We loaded up our minivan a couple of weeks ago for a road trip to Pittsburgh to see family, since we hadn’t been back in about a year. I suppose we should have taken it as an omen, but about ten minutes into the trip, Theo threw up all over himself. The rest of the ride was without incident, but the following day, when we woke up, Max was complaining that his throat hurt, and shortly after, he threw up. The morning after that, out of nowhere, Ella threw up. Shockingly, all of the kids were acting totally okay, and the whole throwing up thing seemed like a one and done occurrence. My husband had really wanted us to spend a night alone together, sans kids, in the city. I was totally reluctant given the chance that our kids could really be sick, but my mother in law encouraged us to go. Mind you that Mike and I almost never leave the kids. So, knowing that they were in great hands, I decided that we had kind of earned a night off and we headed out. Mike had booked a hotel for us and we had plans to grab dinner. The night went well, and all was good with the kids. It was absolutely freezing outside (think negative degrees), and as always, we were trying our best to see at least a few people while in town and also enjoy some time alone together. If you’ve ever lived away from your family or friends, then you’ll understand that this is always a struggle, but we try to do the best we can. In the end, we enjoyed some good food, my husband enjoyed some drinks, and we made it back to our hotel.
I woke up the next morning blissfully unaware of what was to come, and thankful for the opportunity to sleep through the night uninterrupted. A few minutes later, It dawned on me that I wasn’t feeling so hot, and a few minutes after that, I was running for the bathroom to hurl. We had plans to drive home later that day, but at that point I could barely peel myself off of the bathroom floor of the hotel. By some sort of miracle, we made it back to Mike’s mom’s house, and I immediately made my way into bed, where I made every effort to quarantine myself from the rest of the family. Sadly, my efforts were in vain, because within a few hours, Theo had caught this terrible bug too, and within a few more hours it was on to Max. My poor husband and MIL dealt with so much throw up that day… I swear, they both deserve some sort of reward, because it was beyond awful. Getting a stomach bug while pregnant is miserable, but having your babies sick at the same time and being totally helpless is worse.
We obviously didn’t make it home that day, but had to make it happen the next. You can imagine how fun that ride was… a van full of puke buckets and towels, but we made it. Mike ended up feeling pretty terrible a few days later, and miraculously, Ella never got whatever the rest of us had, but overall it was one of the worst things we’ve ever experienced as a family.
Fast forward a couple more days and I woke up one night with horrendous pain on the left side of my back and in my lower belly. I don’t know why I didn’t realize what was going on immediately, because I had had pain like this before, but after a few hours of misery, it became clear… I had a kidney stone. I experienced kidney stones during my pregnancy with Ella, so I’m no stranger to how painful they are, but I was in serious agony. I ended up at the doctor’s and with some testing, they agreed that was what was going on. I was sent home with meds, and orders to hydrate like crazy and to basically be on bedrest. Bedrest? With three kids at home??? I followed the orders as best as I could, but by Saturday I felt even worse, and my doctor wanted me to head to the hospital. As it turns out, on top of the stones, I had an infection.
As someone who is generally a healthy person, and who has been blessed with a pretty healthy family… our health is 100% something that I took for granted until this past week. I am thankful to (hopefully) finally be on the mend, thrilled that my babies are all feeling better, and beyond grateful to my husband who really held things together this past week when everything seemed to be falling apart.
I know a lot of you follow my stories on Instagram, and have had a vague idea as to what’s been going on, but I wanted to catch you all up on why things have been so quiet, and let you know what’s been going on, and I also wanted to thank those of you who sent prayers and well wishes our way. From what I hear, the flu and other illnesses have been rampant this winter, so if any of you are suffering or have family members who are sick, I’m sending prayers and well wishes your way too!
Leave a Reply