Elli and I decided a while ago that for this winter break from her studies we were gonna take a family vacation. It would just be the three of us. After debating choices and weighing costs, we decided upon a hotel over in WI Dells. We figured with an indoor waterpark in a touristy place such as that, it would provide plenty of enjoyable activities for us as well as our little guy. After looking at a few places out there, we settled on the Wilderness Resort since it is geared towards the youngins. We booked for 3 nights and were all set. The date came and off we went. If this were a horror movie, this is the part you would hear "chh chh chh, shh shh shh, ahh ahh ahh".
Weekend before Departure
As I was about to leave from work on Friday, I got a call from our Daycare provider saying that Daven had just thrown up all over the place and we needed to come and pick him up. "Great" I remember thinking, "just a few days before we are leaving. Figures." When I got there he was happily running around and not looking much worse for wear. His teacher thought it was just from swallowing too much air when he was eating his snack and it all just kind of got burped up. Sounded reasonable, and he did look ok. Maybe a little pale, but not bad. And he was still eating. He hardly ever eats when he is sick. The rest of Friday went without incident, and he really did seem OK. Saturday came and he had nothing really out of the ordinary. He had a slightly messier diaper one time, but nothing that caused alarm. But then Sunday morning came and a few hours after eating his breakfast, the juice and waffles he had made a reappearance on his bedroom floor, the bathroom floor, and the bathroom sink. "Damn" I thought, "there goes the vacation." But by the time I got it all cleaned up, he was already singing happily away and ready to go again. The rest of Sunday, like Friday and Saturday, went without incident. He ate plenty and went to sleep fine. Looking back I now remember that my stomach was starting to feel a little off Sunday night, but I just wrote it off to being nervous about Daven and whether or not he was up for the trip. Elli and I decided we would see how he was Monday morning and go from there. Little did we know that we were the ones who would need care.
Those aren't hunger pains
Monday morning came and Daven looked healthy and ready to go. So we made the decision to go for it. We loaded up the truck (as a side note a crew cab truck is AWESOME for traveling. We got everything in the seat area next to Daven and didn't need to use the truck bed at all) and pointed it East to the land of the waterslides. I do remember taking note that again my stomach felt a little off still, but when I was out and about gathering last minute things for the trip I was fine. We set out a little after noon and put it on cruise control and sat back and watched the miles tick away. About half way through we stopped for some fast food lunch. I thought I was hungry but when it came time to order I realized I didn't want a big meal. So I ordered a junior version and managed to eat the burger but only a few fries and a few drinks of the soda. Back on the road, I made the comment to Elli that I thought maybe I picked up a touch of what Daven had. "My stomach doesn't feel sick, it just kind of feels weird." "Huh", said my incredibly thoughtful and concerned Wife. Things deteriorated rapidly once we go to the hotel.
I'll just sit over here while you guys wander around
As we were getting all settled in and I was unloading the truck, my stomach starting coming up into my throat. A lot of burping and gurgling was going on, but damn it! I was determined not to sit by and watch the first family vacation go by. So when Elli suggested that I hang out in the room and see how I feel after relaxing for a bit while she and Daven go explore, I said no to that and wanted to tag along. "We'll take two keys then", she said, "so that if you need to go back without us you can." Deal. We decided it was too close to Dav's bedtime to try a waterpark so we went for the big indoor playground instead. It was only a little walk from our room, but by the time we got there I knew I was done for. I sat off in the corner at one of the tables and tried to feel better, but then I caught Elli's eye and signaled I was going back to the room. Once there, I crawled into the bed and proceeded to succumb to violent fever induced chills, to the point that I was actually cramping from shaking so much. I would just get warm when my stomach signaled to head for the bathroom, only to get there and have nothing happen, so that I would be completely chilled and crawl back into bed and do it all over again.
This Caesar salad looks good
While I was in the clutches of a nasty shake and bake, Elli was entertaining our son. After exploring the hotel for a while, they decided to look for food. After settling on a place, Elli orderd the caesar salad. According to her, she thought she was hungry (sound familiar? Remember the horror music from before? Now would be a good time to start playing it in your head again), but about half way through it realized that wasn't her stomach saying it was hungry. So, she loaded Daven up and headed for the safety of the room. When she got back I was curled up with a hooded sweatshirt and all the blankets on top of me and explained to her the routine of the false alarms. She then pointed out that her stomach was starting to get very very queasy as well.
Shit.
So thankfully Daven went to bed with little incident. Elli, who by then was also starting to shake and have the pressure rising in her stomach as well, and I agreed to make use of both of the queen beds and each take one and try to get some sleep.
And let the games begin
I think it was sometime around 10pm when the fun began. Throwing the blankets off and running to the bathroom this time I knew wasn't gonna be practice. No no, it was show time and it didn't disappoint. I'll spare the details, but when it was all said and done I visited the bathroom only once but Elli was in there 3 times. Like the last time I threw up from a stomach bug though I pulled a muscle in my back. So from about 10:30pm or so until 6am I got zero sleep because it felt like someone was driving their knee into my back. Not kneeing and then stopping, not laying a knee there. Driving with all of their weight into my back. And it was constant and there was absoluetly no position I could lay in that offered any sort of relief. I can't convey in words how much that sucked. Either from the pain of all of that or the fever though, I do remember having this strange dream/hallucination that I was someone named Hugh and that I was some sort of armorer or organizer of some late mid-evil revolt of some type. It was very weird, but very vivid as well. Long of the short, it was a miserable night for both of us.
A New Day
Tuesday morning came and both Elli and I were miserable, but feeling a little better. Good enough at least that we realized we wouldn't have to completely suffer through the day trying to keep Daven entertained. After finding Advil for my back at the gift shop and drinking some fluids, we headed over to the first waterpark of the trip. A big ol' wavepool. The rest of the day we managed to hang in there and go to the arcade and climbing area again and take care of Daven and make it fun for him. Elli said it best though by putting it like this: "It was like being hungover all day but not doing anything fun the night before to get to that point." As the hours past our health restored a little bit and we managed a rather enjoyable vacation. Daven didn't seem to notice, other than getting a little pissed off when we forgot to feed him Tuesday since neither of us wanted anything to do with food, and seemed to enjoy himself.
We had fun but it definaetly drove the point home that there are no sick days when you are a parent. You just gotta man up and go for it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment