You might have noticed that Carena wasn't present for Brian's birthday song and cupcakes. That's because I put her to bed after dinner, as she was crabby and had vomited earlier in the day. She and I had a bad cold and cough last week, so I didn't think too much of it, assuming that she threw up because she had coughed too hard. How wrong I was...The next morning we all ate breakfast uneventfully. The girls and I left for swim lessons, leaving Carrie with Brian. He had his hands full while we were gone. She threw up a few more times, but typical of Carrie's temperament, wouldn't sit still. At one point she was vomiting as she ran around the house. Each "wave" was another area to clean up. Thank goodness for tile floors!
I boiled the eggs for coloring and Teresa and Anna went outside to play while they cooled. Anna returned rubbing her belly. Uh oh. Within the hour she too was vomiting. By the early evening I knew that it was just a matter of time for me, too. Brian succumbed to the virus on Easter morning, even with a self-proclaimed stomach of steel.
No one cared that the Easter Bunny had visited, and the only person who could even look at candy was Teresa. She found all the eggs and ate a ton of sweets while the rest of us were too weak to stop her. But alas, Teresa's immune system couldn't hold out, and by late afternoon she too was in GI misery. Picture all of us sprawled out on the sofa, in various states of slumber with blankets, towels, and "puke bowls" nearby. Not quite the Easter I had envisioned.
Fortunately, 4 of the 5 of us were feeling much better by the next day. Poor Anna continued vomiting all through Sunday night, unable to keep anything down. Brian took her to the clinic on Monday morning. She was sent to the American Hospital Dubai for IV fluids, and later admitted after lab tests confirmed she was severely dehydrated. It wasn't until Tuesday afternoon that they let her come home.
Today, Wednesday, we are finally going to color those Easter eggs!
(As a side note, the entire hospital bill - ER visit, IVs, overnight stay, meds, etc. was just under 2500 dhs, or $680. By comparison, I took Carrie to the ER last year after a febrile seizure, where they did a chest x-ray, straight cath, and blood draw. We waited 2 hours for lab results and then got the clear to go home. My insurance company was billed $3,450. Isn't that crazy?)
