Day +688: Stomach flu

There has been a nasty stomach bug going around Mina & Isaac's school. Isaac was very ill last week -- he threw up at least once an hour from around 11 AM to 3 AM Monday, and he didn't really stop throwing up until Wednesday. He had a pretty high fever late Monday/early Tuesday, but otherwise not so much. He just couldn't keep anything down. Poor guy. He kept wanting water, but we couldn't give him too much or it would come right back up again. We called the pediatrician's office first thing Wednesday morning, and they gave explicit instructions for rehydration: give him two tablespoons of water every 20 minutes. We figure he must have been pretty dehydrated, because he responded really well to that, and was relatively perky again Wednesday night. But he wasn't quite well enough to go to school on Friday, and I can tell he still doesn't feel totally like himself, although today he did pretty well.

Many of the kids in the school have had similar symptoms to Isaac, but Mina seems to have miraculously escaped it so far. She had a little bit diahrrea around mid-week, and complained that her stomach felt like it was being pinched. Which is funny, because that's exactly the same symptoms I had, and exactly the same description I used for my stomach. She's been out of sorts though, just not really herself for the last several days. Shouldn't be too surprising, and if that's all she gets from this virus we can be pretty thankful.

I was just glancing through my last entry and got stuck on the part where the bruising was a worry but Mina's energy level was a comfort. Right now it's exactly the opposite. Mina's bruising has magically gone away after stopping the aspirin. Now she has a small bruise here and there, just like Isaac does, instead of constantly having several bruises on her legs and one or two on her arms. But her energy level is not where it was a few weeks ago. Several weeks ago she started napping again on some days, after not really doing it at all for several months. She can really use the nap sometimes, and it can help Keri get a break during the day if both kids go down, so we're not really complaining about it. There's just always the constant worry about what else could be going on.

Grandma Lyn was here all week, which was great for us but not so great for her. It was one of the nicest weeks of the year weather-wise, with daytime temperatures in the low to mid 70s every day. But they were stuck inside the house all week, because Isaac was not up for going anywhere! We finally got everyone out of the house on Saturday, the day of her flight, but that was the first day it was cold and foggy again. Go figure. It was great having her here though. The kids adore her, and she was a huge help with Isaac. Today he was walking around saying that Grandma Lyn was his mommy. He's always got some role-playing game going on -- usually he's the garbageman, or the bus driver -- and today his game somehow had Grandma Lyn as his mom.

Mina has been going nuts with building blocks and Legos these days. She spent most of her week building big elaborate houses out of the medium-sized Legos we have. We still have "Grandma's house" on our mantel. Mina built a huge tall "house" out of the large brick-blocks at school. Teacher Julie said it must have been six feet tall. She also said the only reason Mina was able to do that was because all of the other three-year-olds were out sick, so they weren't around to distract her and to compete for the blocks.

Please take a moment to think some positive thoughts for the Aicardi family. Eileen Aicardi is our wonderful pediatrician who was so stellar during the weeks after Mina was diagnosed. She raised five sons, three of whom were involved in a brawl that injured several members of an a capella singing group from Yale during a private party on New Year's Eve. It's been international news, and a big story here in town as well. Her son Richard was indicted on felony assault charges, and the boys have now been sued as well. I know that no one feels worse about the incident than Dr. Aicardi and her husband, and my heart aches for them for all that they are going through now. Dr. Aicardi was there for us in our darkest hour, truly going above and beyond the call of duty, and she and her family need our thoughts and prayers now.