Sick Daze

Living in Virginia this past year, it's been sad to be removed from our families located on the west coast. Though Skype and other face to face conversations keeps our daughter aware of other people, it does not provide the same experience you have when you actually play with other kids. So we were really excited to come visit the families in conjunction with my wife graduating from her doctorate program.

To summarize the trip in a nutshell, we saw all of our immediate families, and a handful of other folk in a whirl-wind of hand shakes, hugs, cake and coffee. Before we knew it, we were on a five AM flight back to Virginia. It was a Monday.

That is about when it began. 

Sometimes when I wake up early, I may get a little nauseous, especially if I try eating something and then get hurtled 30,000 feet up into the air. Whatever the reason was, somewhere over Nebraska, I was gripping my barf bag, praying to God that I didn't lose whatever I put in me yesterday.

Fortunately I left the plane more or less the same weight as when I started. After roughly 12 hours of planes, buses and automobiles, we made it home and went to bed. 

It was around 1 AM when my daughter threw up all over her bed. We didn't sleep that night.

We thanked or lucky stars that my wife had requested the following day off to get adjusted to the time change, unpack, etc. But instead of having a productive day back, we all slept. That's how we spent Tuesday.

Wednesday, Nicole went back to work. She did fantastic. We were all feeling better and had rather productive days, though we were dragging a little, easily explained by the two previous days of limited activity. However, around 4 o'clock that afternoon, I got an urgent phone call: "Come pick me up, I'm on the verge of being sick." I rushed to the hospital, where my wife happens to work, and brought her home where she spent the next six hours intermittently asleep on the bathroom floor. We finally managed to transfer her to the couch around 10 that night. 

Three hours later, I took her place. It was about 6AM on Thursday when we all stopped expelling fluids. The rest of the day was devoted to sleep.

We awoke on Friday, alive. Thank the Lord. Nicole went to work, I cleaned the house, and Michelle terrorized the dog. It was practically a normal day, we just had difficulty figuring out what day it actually was. 

In summary, I have no regrets visiting my family, but sometimes there are unsaid perks to using Skype and Facetime, whether your 3,000 miles away, or 30. 

Love you guys.