Food Poisoning, Lost Tooth, Flooding - Oh My!

After a full week of working out of the home for the first time in almost 20 years, I was looking forward to a fun-filled Sunday as a family and with our church family.

Status quo for a Sunday with the addition of a fellowship dinner at the pastor's house following the evening service.

We stayed much longer than expected as we planned to 'get home early' from this affair as Techno needed to prepare for his work trip to Ohio, the girls insulin pumps were due for a change,  and we had school the next day.

We pulled in our drive after midnight.  That's REALLY late considering the older kids still had to walk the dogs and tuck in the chickens and rabbits. The girls sleepily got ready for bed and we postponed pump changes b/c everyone was so tired.  Techno and I waited for the older 2 to return from their dog walk then we meandered back to our bedroom.

That's when it all changed.

Suddenly my stomach started to hurt.  Then it got worse.  A lot worse.  Severe cramps, cold sweats, nausea.  This was at 1am.  I finally laid down around 1:30 am but was so cold I couldn't get warm - I turned on my electric blanket and tried to snuggle in.  Finally I drifted off to sleep.  Around 2:10 am - it all returned.  Severe cramps, cold sweats, nausea.

This continued every 20-40 minutes through 4:00am.  It was like wash, wring, repeat.  Over and over and over all night long.

Techno researched a few 'possible' problems that would cause my symptoms.  Many suggested a trip to the ER, but I didn't want to do that as we really didn't have any contingency plans for the kids at home.

After the 4am bout I actually slept for almost an hour till the next episode.  Then another hour till about 6am.  Finally it began to stretch out to an hour and a half to two hours between episodes.  Then excruciating pain and nausea would hit again.

I was down for the count.

A call mid-morning to Teledoc revealed I had 'classic symptoms' of food poisoning.

Food poisoning.  Yuk.

The thought had occurred to me when it all started, but I discounted it b/c no one else in the family had any symptoms and we had all eaten some of the same things.  Apparently food poisoning can be quite selective in terms of who is effected and who isn't. We assume that my previous week of working full time, not sleeping well during that week, resulted in my immune system being a little under the weather - hence not as capable of fighting off whatever bacteria made it's way into my system.  Sigh.

While I huddled under the covers in my room dozing b/w bouts in the bathroom the kids continued on with 'life as usual' just minus mom.

Selah came in at 7:30 am and started to climb into bed with me. I stopped her and told her mama was sick. She was sad and started to wander off. I asked her what she needed.  Her first tooth had fallen out in her sleep.

What an exciting day for her and mom was too sick to celebrate much with her.  Later in the day I did take a picture of her and we talked about her tooth falling out when all three girls brought me 'get well' cards, pictures, and presents they wanted me to have.  They were all super sweet.  Loving on mom and wanting her to feel better -- soon.

Techno brought me water when he went out to work.  Later, the older kids brought me a cup of broth in an attempt to help me stay hydrated.  While they were delivering my cup, they mentioned how the girls had 'flooded' the kitchen.

Wait.  Rewind.  Flooded the kitchen?  How?  In my muddled state of consciousness, it wasn't really registering how such an event could occur.  Had they filled the sinks so full and just kept letting the water run?  Discipline would be in high order.  How else could they flood the kitchen?

Apparently as they were doing their morning chores of washing the breakfast dishes, the hose that connects the faucet (that pulls out to spray etc.) and the water source, came undone at the faucet level when they returned the head to the base after spraying off some unsuspecting dish.  Thus allowing water to simply flow under the sink. Apparently it didn't seem odd to them that water was no longer flowing INTO the sink.  A short time later as they continued to wash the dishes, Selah looked down and said, "Uh, Charity" and pointed to the floor that was now resembling the start of a pond.

You guessed it, water had filled under the sink and was now flowing out on to the floor.  Gulp.

Big kids to the rescue.

All the towels in the house later and the mess was resolved. All that was left was for Techno to reattach the hose.

One good thing that came of my bout with food poisoning?  I didn't have to contend with the flooding issue.  LOL!

The remainder of the day went off without a hitch.  At least as far as I know.  I spent most of the day and early evening in my room, under the covers, dozing when I wasn't doubled over in pain.

The Teledoc came to the rescue with prescriptions for an antibiotic to rid the bacteria that I most likely came in contact with as well as a med to help relieve the cramps and pain that my intestines were going through.  Techno was my hero and took a break from work to pick them up so I could start them ASAP!

Once those were in my system, it was only a brief time before all the symptoms subsided.

Phew!  Praying to never get that again.  Praising God it was as short lived as it was.  (Although 13 hours of that didn't FEEL like it was short lived at the time.) Apparently food poisoning CAN last days before it works it's way through one's body -- ridding itself of the bacteria causing the distress.

Although an extremely painful and less than fun event, getting food poisoning helped remind me how wonderful my family is and how blessed I am to have them in my life. They all took care of me, brought me trinkets to show their love, handled the day to day running in the house, and worried and loved on me as I recovered from a long night of pain.

I am blessed.