Tonight's picture was taken in January of 2009. Mattie was home between hospital visits and our neighbor and his Jack Russell Terrier, JJ, came for a visit. Mattie and JJ practically grew up together and they were good buddies. However, once Mattie had his limb salvaging surgeries he was a little more hesitant to be around JJ. I think Mattie was scared that JJ would jump on him and injure him in some way. Nonetheless, with JJ on a lease, this helped to make this furry visit possible!
Quote of the day: No matter how much falls on us, we keep plowing ahead. That's the only way to keep the roads clear. ~ Greg Kincaid
Last night while cooking dinner, a wave of nausea came over me. It was so bad that even my migraine meds weren't helping. I stopped cooking and went upstairs to my bed to try to reset. However, it wasn't working. I was unable to cook, serve, and deal with dinner last night. Fortunately my parents had a good lunch that day. It took all the energy I had to get my dad up the stairs and in bed. My mom however, did not want to go to bed, so I left her downstairs in the family room with the TV on.
By 11pm, I jumped out of bed because I knew what was coming. I spent the night vomiting profusely. It was very debilitating. In the midst of facing this, my mom had the TV blaring at 1am. So I went downstairs, and she was up on her phone. I told her she had to go to bed and I helped her upstairs. As soon as I finished helping her I vomited again.
After a very restless and upsetting night of no sleep, I got myself up at 8:30am. I went into my parents room. My mom was already up and clueless to what was going on with my dad. I could smell something was wrong even before getting in the room. But what I saw was an absolute nightmare. My dad had an explosive bout of diarrhea. I honestly have never seen such horrors.... as it was puddled on the floor, under the bed, all over the bed rail, on the mattress box spring, all over the sheets and mattress protectors and the pillows, and of course my dad was a mess. How my mom couldn't see this is beyond my comprehension. Keep in mind that I am still nauseous from last night, so this morning's sight practically did me in. My mom can't manage it, she is very squeamish, so I had to address it all. It took me two hours to clean everything. I stripped the bed completely, cleaned everything with either white vinegar or Clorox clean up and then got my dad back into bed because I wasn't ready for him yet.
When I returned back upstairs to shower my dad, we faced another bout of diarrhea. I now have him on Imodium and I believe these gastro issues are a two pronged problem... partly the infection he has and a side effect of taking strong antibiotics for aspiration pneumonia. I have been cleaning and dealing with laundry all day. It was so bad that I had the windows upstairs open and fans going in their room all day. I successfully managed and contained the problem.
I so wanted to go lie down today, but that wasn't in the cards for me. My mom's car has been at the garage getting service for three weeks now. Today, they completed the work and wanted me to pick up the car before the snow storm. So I found the inner strength to take the rental car back and retrieved my mom's car. Tonight, I have to figure out dinner. Food isn't going down for me and I am not hungry, yet my parents need to eat. I can just about manage dry cereal.
The positive news is my dad's fever seems to have broken and his hiccups are getting better. Yet the hiccups haven't gone away completely, so this is always a concern. I am signing off for today and hope that tomorrow is a better day.
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