Stomach Bug

To my son Tommy,

You have learned a very valuable lesson over the last couple days. That lesson of course is "Don't trust a fart when you have a stomach bug!" Life has been miserable for you as of late, between your diarrhea and even some vomiting, a bug which seems to be making its way around the area. After a couple initial accidents, you spent a good amount of time on the pot. You would mope around on the couch, generally feeling miserable, then get this surprised look on your face and start saying "Diarrhea Emergency!" as you ran in penguin fashion to the bathroom. It seemed never ending, and though not pleasant by any means, we at least had that plan of action down pat. Then came the vomiting.

Yesterday morning, before I took you to your Bwama's house, you looked at me and started crying. I figured it was gas or bowel pain. I was wrong. It was stomach pain and not going to make it through the intestines and was going to take the path of least resistance. You looked me straight in the eye and did your best impersonation of Mt. Vesuvius. You had only had some water for breakfast and all that came out. Luckily, my old ratty sneakers were right there on the floor in front of you and caught the majority of spew. I had been meaning to get rid of those sneakers anyhow. That was the last event of the symptoms and as of today you have led a symptom free life for about 24 hours. I am crossing my fingers that you are through this little personal hell.

In news on other fronts, your Grandpa Leo is doing much better. The seizures have stopped for the most part and he is on some new medicines to make sure they don't come back. One of the funniest medicines is his emergency seizure medicine. When we took him to the emergency room for the seizure, they filled him with ativan to break the shakes. I figured if we had a dose of that at his house, we could start breaking the seizure faster on the way to the emergency room, so when he was release I asked. Maybe the doctors thought I was trying to score some of this drug, but they told me that they can't do that because you aren't supposed to give a seizing patient anything orally. Made sense. Instead they gave him one emergency rectal valium. Yep you read that correctly, rectal. I laughed, because what they were telling me is if your grandpa starts shaking bad enough, I basically have to tackle him and shove this up his butt. I pictured us needing not only medical gloves but duct tape as well for this procedure. The old joke of "Rectum hell, damn near killed him." keeps coming to mind.

Your Grandma Roro is still having normal problems, well normal for her. Your mom is off of school today and going to take her to the doctor. Your Nana Jeanne is still recovering, albeit slowly and poorly, from her recent bowel resection and lumpectomy. Soon she is being transferred to a closer hospital to continue her rehab. Your Great Grandpa Leo is being moved into a care facility this Friday. They say they don't want this to be permanent, and your Grandpa Leo really wants your Great Grandpa to die at home among his family members, but they need to do this while everyone is recovering. We will see how temporary this is. Your Great Uncle Kevin is stretched thin and I think will welcome the break of not having to monitor your Great Grandpa 24-7.

On a good note, your PopPop was thinking about getting a part time job, and since your Grandpa Leo needs someone to get things done to his house (drywall repair, flooring replacement for the basement, perhaps some cabinets hung, etc) and PopPop knows how to do these things, I suggested that they get together. Your Grandpa Leo and your PopPop loved the idea. Even if PopPop just acts the foreman and they hire some guys to do the work, he will make sure things get done and get done properly. Plus maybe he can take the metal detector to the attic and find your Grandpa Leo's samurai sword he threw up there that fell in the insulation.

On the old home front, your mom is finishing up her last semester of her nursing RN degree and none too soon I might add. She is about done with the schooling and now is the time to just buckle down and finish things up. Me, I am still busy as crap with work and trying to help out on all the other fronts where I can help. Barely a moment of my time goes by unaccounted for, yet I feel like I am accomplishing nothing. Life has become a real juggling act and I thank God that I have your mom to help me through it. That is another life lesson. So let us sum up. Marry a good woman who will help you through; if you have to vomit, find a bucket instead of a shoe; and don't trust a fart. Yep. That about covers it.

Sincerely with love from your dad,
Leo