It has been an extraordinarily terrible week. Our whole family has been fighting a stomach bug. Worse, my 3-year-old spent more than a week being sick, and my heart is tired. Not only are we all physically and mentally exhausted, but I'm just done with the constant clean up, the sick buckets required in every room, and the never-ending hypervigilance that has been keeping me and my husband up at night.

Waking up on the bathroom floor

The whole ordeal started with me. Last Monday night, July 26, I was the first to became violently ill. We had a great morning at the playground. The kids climbed the nets, scaled the rock wall like Spider-men, and slid down all three slides. I sat on a stone bench nearby and smiled while chatting and keeping distance from the other few parents present. Laughter filled the morning.

But that night, I passed out on the bathroom floor. This stomach bug is that type that forces you to choose between sitting on the toilet or leaning your head over the bowl. And all the while, you pray you made the right choice.

I have rather low blood pressure, so when fluids rush out of my body, I have a tendency to lose consciousness for a few minutes.

I have rather low blood pressure, so when fluids rush out of my body, I have a tendency to lose consciousness for a few minutes. Fun times. Thankfully, my husband was beside me as I passed out. As I get older, I just don't want that to happen again while I'm alone.

Also, thank goodness my neighbor is a nurse. She and my husband helped me through those agonizing 3 hours. And I'm utterly grateful that my kids were already in bed and asleep when I collapsed.

The stomach bug targeted my husband next

My husband, David, then fell ill in the wee hours of Tuesday morning and got hit with the brunt of the virus that night. Unfortunately, because he woke with an empty stomach, he had to force himself to eat during the day despite the nausea so that he finally had something to expel. His stomach desperately needed to empty itself.

Wednesday, our kids watched TV and played mostly well together. David and I observed them from the sofa while in a zombie-like trance. Movement equaled massive nausea. The kids enjoyed a day full of snacks and running amok. We managed to give them the thumbs up or thumbs down regarding any requests they made.

Our poor kiddos couldn't escape the stomach bug

Thursday morning at 3 a.m., our 3-year-old one woke us up with his sobs. And so began the kids' turns. After I showered off our preschooler and David put on new bedding, our sweet boy got little sleep, as did I. Unable to leave his room, I slept beside him. Every time he moaned in his half sleep, I jumped up with a bucket.

Thursday night, our 6-year-old, who declared just that morning how lucky he was the virus skipped him, succumbed as well. And yet, as ruthless as this stomach bug has been, our 6-year-old was ready to leap off the sofa and throw the ball around the house a mere 24 hours later. He's always had a rather impressive immune system.

Not the strongest immune system

Our 3-year-old, on the other hand, spent the weekend laying on the sofa and floor like a rag doll. He had one apple pouch here and there, a few bites of banana, one gram cracker, and lots of electrolytes for 4 days, all of which he was unable to keep down. The large tears dripping down his cheeks every time he realized he was about to be sick again broke my heart over and over again. And my sweet boy just couldn't understand why life had taken such an evil turn for him.

The large tears dripping down his cheeks every time he realized he was about to be sick again broke my heart over and over again.

Finally, a week after this stomach bug invaded our lives, the doctor prescribed Zofran to stop our preschooler's nausea. It helped for maybe 12 hours. We prayed that would be enough to let his little tummy heal so that by the time the medicine wore off, he’d be past this bug too.

Nope. Monday night, our little one regurgitated the few calories he’d managed to gain in several days. Tuesday morning, we headed to the pediatrician. In five days, he had lost 3 lbs, which is about 10% of his body weight.

After his second dose of Zofran, he finally kept his food down. But he had to endure four more days of eating like a bird, taking sips of water throughout the day, and throwing up two more times. Still, my sweet boy regained his strength and eagerly told me how our living room had become the new Octopod HQ. Oh, and Ryder and the Paw Patrol pups helped him fix our sofa, which was actually a rocket with boosters.

Worrying about the future

I cannot stand my preschooler being so ill. He’s such a happy, sweet, imaginative, affectionate little thing. He's the center of my heart, removed from my body and living in the world, where I cannot possibly protect him from everything. And given how he's never really handled viruses well, I cannot help but panic about him starting preschool this September. Even with mask mandates in place here in Maryland, I still worry for my kiddos, for my family, for my friends and loved ones, for everyone, and particularly for the immunocompromised.

To stay sane and not like my anxiety drive me mad, I focus on the precautions we can take. Otherwise, all I can do is hope. And pray. And love my kids fiercely.

Always looking for the silver lining

On the plus side (because I need to find plus sides), during our kids’ sofa and TV zombification, we’ve watched all three How To Train Your Dragon movies, repeatedly (which were amazing). And my 6-year-old has a new passion. I have a Dragonology book I’ll have to show him. I also purchased the first three books of the Dragon Masters series. We've read the first book, with him snuggled up beside me, and he adores these adventures.

Regardless, such an abysmal week and a half could have (and at times did) easily suck me into an abyss, where I lost myself again. And yet my saving grace this last week has been working on Life Beyond Parenting (LBP) and using this platform to nurture myself a bit.

And yet my saving grace this last week has been working on Life Beyond Parenting (LBP) and using this platform to nurture myself a bit

Connecting with my readers via my LBP Facebook page gave me a means to channel, or maybe redirect, my anxiety. Having this outlet and creating a safe space—where parents can share their life stories, biggest struggles, and lessons learned; where we can feel heard and validated; where we can remember our voices matter—has tremendously helped me to refill my cup.

During such an awful week, my LBP friends helped me to feel less alone. They helped me to not get lost in those overwhelming feelings of hopelessness and despair. Thank you.

Featured photo by Hello I'm Nik on Unsplash