Sucks to be Sick

His rosy cheeks is the result of a virus, not the cold weather. Three nights ago, he came down crying, complaining he wasn't feeling good. He couldn't describe what he was feeling, he just kept crying. A few short minutes after saw him bending his little body over the toilet bowl, throwing up his dinner. In six half hourly installments. In between that, he also had to sit on the same bowl, passing out liquid stool. I don't know how much water he had lost in the process, but I also know that if I were to give him water during those tormenting intervals, his body would vehemently reject it. Thus, I hardened my heart and didn't give him water throughout the interrupted night. Fortunately, he was too groggy to ask for water.

The next morning, I gave him lots of water in an attempt to replenish what he had lost the night before. It was a relief his body contained them all. Other than a very mild diarrhea, he was feeling almost back to normal in the early afternoon. Except that he had no appetite.

I then noticed that he had tiny red spots appearing on his cheeks, which looked different from the blushy ones from cold weather. As he continued to behave normally throughout the day, I didn't pay too much concern to the spots.

The spotty rashes disappeared yesterday, but were replaced by two round red patches with a diameter of 4cm. They were hot to the touch and slightly swollen. At the time the picture (above) was taken, the red patches were still not so obvious. He also had very light blotchy rashes all over his upper body, they were, however, not itchy.

We brought him to the pediatrician, in the slight suspicion of measles. I don't know why he didn't get his MMR booster shot, his immunisation records showed only one injection. As soon as he gets well, he will receive his long overdue MMR booster.

The doctor confirmed it was not measles. Of course not, I thought to myself. Mothers will always get a hunch if something bad is brewing. I did not have that hunch. We brought him home without any medication from the clinic, happy that he was going to get well in no time.

We did not want the virus to pass on to Opa and Oma, so we regretfully cancelled our invitation of Oma's belated birthday dinner yesterday. It was a good thing that we did, for deep in the night, Johann wasn't feeling good again. He vomited and he had diarrhea. Not only that, both Christophe and my stomachs also started to make funny noises.

After an eventful night of getting in and out of bed numerous time for Johann (not as many times as the first night, but it sure felt more because I was feeling all the symptoms before a throw-up), I wished badly my body could expel the dinner to relieve me of that miserable feeling.

My body was so exhausted today, I had to lie in bed. It looked like we had to cancel another social appointment. I was disappointed with my condition, because I was looking forward to getting to know another neighbour family.

At the same time, we felt we will not be fit enough by then, we called Opa and Oma delivering them the bad news that we had to decline Oma's birthday lunch invitation to a restaurant scheduled for tomorrow.

Christophe, Johann and I even isolate ourselves from the healthy Bart, Enzian and Ludwig. They have to stay upstairs. Have their meals upstairs. Do their homework upstairs. Keep themselves entertained upstairs. As I am writing this, I am missing the three of them badly. I did not know until now that their annoying, noisy presence had meant so much to me. We are particularly worried that Bart would catch the virus as he will be going for a 5 days class trip on Monday.

Besides feeling hungry due to loss of appetite, my heart is heavy with anxiety. I don't know how else to make sure Bart stays healthy so he could enjoy his class trip without getting ill. I am despaired.

Actually, I would have preferred to be able to vomit, which I haven't so far. This languish feeling is stifling. After he visited the toilet six times, Christophe decided to send the boys (except Johann) to get some chinese medicine. I had been feeling weak the whole day, but after taking sips of the typical dark chinese brew and biting a few salted sticks, I felt some return of energy.

In spite of that, I have no idea how the night will go for me later, hopefully Johann won't feel sick again. I also hope I don't feel more lethargic than now. Tomorrow has to be better.

It has to be.

Or I might have to take the chinese medicine again.

The heated up coca cola.