An Unwelcome Holiday Guest

How was your Thanksgiving holiday?  For the most part, our weekend was laid back and low key. Well, with the exception of an unwelcome holiday guest. Can you guess who it was? That's right, we've had the horror of hosting the dreaded stomach bug for the past several days.

It all started Thanksgiving night when, just as I crawled into bed, Patty rolled over and threw up on me and every blanket in our general vicinity. Thankfully, after only a few minutes she was fine. Of course, I was up until the wee hours of the morning washing dirty linens and we had to purchase a mattress cover. But, that really is a small price to pay when the bug makes a stop at your house. As a bonus, I watched Love Actually as the rest of the house slept and I monitored the washer. Pretty good movie, if you're curious.  Do British folks really curse that much?!

It seemed like our guest made only a quick, late night stop until Sunday rolled around. Actually, Patty's appetite remained off following her 'bout with the bug and by Sunday her stomach was even more upset. Bless her heart, she barely touched her rice while we dined with Papaw & Jama for lunch. And she wouldn't even try my homemade chocolate chip cookies!

But, it was actually JT who suffered most at the hands of our unwelcome visitor. His round started Sunday afternoon and after two hours and no relief in sight we decided to send Patty across the street while we carted JT to the good ol' emergency room.

Now, here's something that probably won't surprise you. I. Hate. The. Emergency. Room.

Seriously, I dislike almost everything about it. It is painfully slow moving and filled with people who are oozing germs. It's like a Petrie dish from hell. During our wait I witnessed (too many to count) people in their pajamas. Kids crawling and/or playing on the germy waiting room floor. A throw up bag laid haphazardly on a waiting room chair and another one lost and abandoned on the floor! Now, how do you loose your throw up baggie, really? Not to mention the little speed demon running laps around the waiting room; it couldn't possibly have been the soda his parents kept giving him. Oh, and lets not forget the McDonalds bags sitting randomly among the waiting room patrons. Who can eat food in such a place with all the sick people milling around? Gross!

Thankfully, the ER staff was super nice and we were lucky to be in and out of there in about three hours.  I think that might be an ER record.  So far, our unwanted visitor hasn't made another appearance.  And, the up side of the stomach bug is that nearly all of our blankets have had a good washing in the past few days!