8 months and the stomach flu

Yuck! Seriously. The stomach flu was the one thing I said I absolutely did not want to happen to me during this pregnancy. Anything else, I felt I could survive. But the stomach flu. There was just. no. way. Then, all the sudden, everywhere I went, I kept hearing about it. It's everywhere. At gymnastics, the doctor's office, random people telling me about it in the grocery store, and the checkout lady at Hobby Lobby chugging Pepto Bismol while she's checking me out. Uhh, could you disinfect my items before you put them in the bag please? But I kept taking my vitamins, oregano oil, washing my hands. You know the routine. Sunday we went to church and then drove to NWA to get the kids pictures taken with Santa and see the lights on the square. I was in a pretty bad mood all day. I kept trying to get out of it. I was tired and run down and keeping their nice church clothes clean for their picture with Santa was proving to be impossible. Finally, clothes halfway clean, Benjamin bawling and crying, we got our pictures made with Santa. Benjamin wanted nothing to do with him. Before it was even our turn in line, he was saying, "Santa, no, no, no,no." and, "Bye, Santa." We were laughing hysterically. And this year, guess what? Santa wants you to use hand sanitizer before you sit on his lap. See, even Santa is concerned. I can't blame him. Can you imagine the stuff he's exposed too? Once the pictures are over, we change the kids clothes into less stressful outfits and go eat dinner at Tim's pizza. Dinner is when I started to not feel fabulous. I chalked it up to a really long day. We headed to the square, which is gorgeous! Sad, I didn't have my camera. We took a Cinderella carriage ride around the square and caught a peek of the live reindeer before we bought kettle corn and headed home. We got everyone in bed. Boy, my bed felt so good. About 2 am, I woke up with a stomach ache. I took oregano oil, papaya enzymes, and probiotics. I think I just started prolonging the inevitable. I had the worst stomach ache for an hour. Then, finally, the stomach flu came. There is nothing worse in my book than throwing up with a huge, pregnant belly. I would get sick, have a contraction, cry because it was so painful. I would have about 10 minutes of relief from the nausea, in which I would sanitize the bathroom. I'm crazy. I know. Then the nausea would start again and I would just sit on the bathroom floor. Miserable and cold. This went on all night. Scot woke up around 6:30 am with Benjamin and found me on the bathroom floor. By 10:00am I could tell this wasn't going to be getting better. I was starting to feel completely dehydrated. I could keep nothing down and my contractions were getting closer and closer together. I could barely move at this point. My body was beginning to ache severely, my face was on fire, and I was shaking all over. I knew I better get some IV fluids quickly. Scot called our sweet friends, who graciously took our kids while he drove me to Urgent Care. I am so blessed they would even see me at 34 weeks pregnant. It took over an hour to be seen, and I had to stay in the car because I was too weak to sit up. I couldn't even hold down an ice chip at this point. They called our cell phone when it was my turn and Scot took me in a wheelchair inside. I don't even remember a lot at this point, because I was going downhill so fast. They put me in a room and started an IV and gave me an IV push of Zofran. Within minutes of the IV and Zofran I felt like I was slowly coming back to the real world. The nausea was finally gone and I had a sip of Gatorade that I was able to hold down. They were letting the fluids run in wide open and I had 2 L in about 30 minutes. I was alive. Granted, it wasn't like I was over my ordeal, my brain was able to put a thought together and my body was able to move without someone moving it for me. It was a huge improvement. Oh, and to be able to drink something. It was awesome. They sent me home with more Zofran and Scot took me home. I got in a bath and went to bed. Scot would bring me more drinks and Zofran and I just slept and slept and slept. Today, I was finally able to get up about noon and shower. I haven't eaten anything. But I am going to try that in a little while. But I'm alive, I'm alive, I'm alive..... with a really sore belly.