December 13, 2004

It happened really quickly, but somehow I wasn't surprised. Gracie and I were sitting in sacrament meeting yesterday, (Erin was home with Matt who was at home ill). Gracie cried from the moment I put her on my lap -- she kept complainig about her tummy hurting. I assumed it was because she hadn't eaten enough before leaving for church (this is becoming a constant problem). I kept telling her that I would take her right home after church to get something to eat.

Then it happend. She was still sitting on my lap, and out of the corner of my eye, I could see her slightly hunched over, and could feel that her body was stiff. Right away I knew she was throwing up. And I wasn't just a little bit -- it was lots! I could tell how much she had thrown up because I could feel it almost instantly all over my shirt and tie. I didn't look down to assess the damage, instead I looked over at Lara for a cloth, or at a napkin of some sort -- which she didn't have. I looked behind me at Kevin, with that look of desperation that says, "please find me a cloth...". He looked back at me as if to say, "uh, can you see Gracie is vomiting all over you?" Unfortunately he didn't have a cloth either.

So, without any cleaning device, I picked Gracie up (being very carefull not to spill the vomit which was now resting nicely in a pool that I had created with my suit coat), and walked her out of the chapel into the washroom to clean her up. A special thank you to Lara for following me.

After a brief clean up, I took off her dress and stockings and bundeled her little pantied bum up in her coat to take her home. I explained to Erin what had happened, and I wrongly assumed that Grace was done with the vomitting. It continued on and off all evening. We gave her two tablespoons of water every 15 mintues, and invariably it came back up. I called the Calgary Health Region Health Link number and spoke to a nurse. The nurse advised me to continue with our fluid regimen, and said that it wasn't necessary to bring her in to the hospital. Fortunaley at about 8:30 the vomiting stoped (save one last episode at about 1:30 AM -- which thankfully wasn't a very big deal). Unfortunately for Erin, her sickness was just begining.

At about 9:30 I called Jeff Shipley (our home teacher, who had co-incidently come over this morning to visit us) and asked him to assist me in giving Gracie a blessing. Gracie was very accomodating, even though she was in such pain. I explained to her what we were going to do, and she sat still, and was very quiet. After we administered to her, she said thank you to Jeff, which was the first thing she had said other than "my tummy hurts" all evening. I took that as her first sign of getting better.

Shortly after Jeff came over, we put Gracie to sleep. I slept in Gracie's bed, and made sure she got a little bit of water every few hours. Erin slept in her own bed and tried to keep down what little dinner she had eaten. So far today, Erin has been the worst.

It's now 2:30 (almost exactly 24 hours after Gracies first episode). I typing this entry and Gracie is once again sitting on my lap -- this time a much happier girl. Erin has just woken up from an hour nap, and she's starting to fell better too (sort of).