Thursday, August 8, 2013

Do Learning Styles and Sickness Styles correlate?

We have been hit HARD by the stomach bug!!  Thank goodness we've all had a turn on, whether it came out of the top or the bottom.  Hopefully we are all on the mend.  I've had lots of time to process the fact that every single person in this family has his/her own sickness style and they are so very unique.
Rachel got sick first, so let's start with her.  First of all, I should note, that after living for 5 1/2 years in a house where other people have gotten stomach bugs, this is the first time she has ever thrown up!!  Pretty amazing if you ask me!  It all started at her violin lesson on Tuesday.  She was doing well and playing her violin and then I noticed she started speeding up...a LOT.  She handed Miss Luci the violin, turned to me with a super pale fast and started crying while saying, "I want to go home!"  I literally had no idea what was going on.  In that split second, I thought her violin career was over!  However, that was all quickly followed by projectile blueberry and strawberry vomit (you're welcome).  Over the course of the day, she had to change many outfits, because, quite frankly, she didn't know what to do when she was sick.  Once she got it all out, she just wanted her pajamas on and wanted to lay with her Mama.  She quickly went to sleep in my bed.  The next day, she spent the whole day being wishy-washy.  She wanted to eat something, no she didn't want to eat something.  She wanted to hold the trash can just in case, no the trash can got on her nerves, so she put it down.  She wanted to get out her sewing, then after one stitch, she wanted to put it up (this happened at least five times!).  She wanted to watch the movie with her brother and sister, no she wanted to go to bed, now cover her up, oh, no, she wants to watch the movie.  That happened at least 150 times (it was only an hour long movie!).  This morning she was up and back to her old self...including putting her fingers back in her mouth.  Allen and I both keep reminding her that putting her fingers in her mouth is probably how this all started, but old habits die hard.
I'll call her sickness style:  NERVOUS WISHY-WASHY
Our most remarkable friend and pediatrician came by on his way to town after Rachel begged me to call him.  I agreed since she had thrown up about 5 times too many.  While he was here, Ford was chatting him up and playing on the front porch (we wouldn't let him or his wife in!) while Rachel and I sat on the swing relaxing.  Ruby was running around the yard like she was going to escape this crazy house.  Ford went inside for about two minutes and on his way back out, he threw up all over the porch, how's that for good timing?  At that point, we knew it was time for some medicine, because this was going to spiral out of control fast!  Ford was really good at keeping his mess contained once we got him a trash can, but (TMI warning, but isn't this whole post a little TMI?) he kept spitting which was not settling well with me!  He started to bounce back once we found Thomas on the lap top so that he'd sit still and relax.  He woke up a couple of times in the night, but there was a beach towel and trash can on the floor by my bed (he was on the other side of Rachel like an old married couple) and he made it to the trash can every time.  In the morning, he drank some cold water and it came right back up.  He decided then and there he wasn't eating or drinking for the rest of the day.  After a few problems getting it to work, Grandpa pulled through with his Netflix account on our laptop and Ford literally spent the rest of the day in the corner of the couch watching shows.  He honestly didn't even get up to go to the bathroom until dinner time at which point he had a little water and half of a graham cracker.
Let's call his style:  NEAT and CLEAN in TV LAND
This morning at 3 AM, I got struck by the bug.  I really think I"m having the hardest time recovering since I have this other little guy in my belly.  It has taken me until now to even really want to sit up.  I spent much of the day on the couch or in bed once Allen got home.  I'm a sleeper and I do better if I can just close my eyes and ward off the sickness, but there's not much time for that when other people need you.  Thank goodness Allen only had to work a few hours this morning, so that he could take over.  I did manage to get up and make a color wheel with the kids while I was feeling better.  I was feeling guilty for all of the TV they've been watching, so we used the water color pencils and mixed colors with Q-tips.  Then we watched some more TV!
I"ll call my style:  SLEEPWALKING
Ruby managed to make it all the way until late this afternoon before she got sick.  She came in to sit with me after telling Allen that her belly hurt.  She had some rough time on the potty and then it finally came out of the top.  I'm going to say within 5.2 seconds after throwing up, she was jumping on the bed and wanting dinner.  I made her wait awhile before eating a Saltine and sure enough, she threw that up immediately.  That didn't prevent her from crawling all over me and bouncing up and down while watching Daniel Tiger.  I'm pretty sure we watched every episode.  I don't need to hear a trolley again for a long time!  When it was time to transition to bed time (even though she'd been on the bed with me for several hours), she even ran to the laundry room to put her clothes in the washing machine and then came barreling down the hall yelling, "NAKED!"  She went to sleep pretty quickly but soon woke up with what I hope is one last throw up episode (probably from some water).
Her style:  UP AND RUNNING
Poor Allen has endured all of this like a champ and is trying his best to avoid getting sick.  He likes staying busy and not focusing on what's going on inside.  I'm afraid once he stops and lays down tonight, he'll finally purge and be done with it.  Then we can spend a good 24-48 hours getting all of these germs cleared out of here.
His style:  BUSY BEE

The last few days have made me not want to leave the house for a loooooooooong time.  I barely remember most of today and I hate missing a day when Ford and Rachel were feeling so good and wanting to do things.  Of course, they didn't really complain much about non-stop TV!!  There's a rude awakening coming on that, though.  We told them Grandpa let us use his Netflix for the weekend and then it's over.  We've done so well finding other things to do and I'm ready to feel good and get back to that.  After all, next week will be our last official week of summer vacation!!
I hope I haven't grossed you out too bad.

1 comment:

  1. Oh my gosh. This is like a cross between a horror movie and a three ringed circus! Oh, I'm so hoping everyone is back to normal soon! xoxo

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