August woke up just after 7, asked for water, drank a bunch, then threw up all over the bed. We cleaned him and the bed up, and I took August downstairs to the kitchen and fixed us yogurt and berries while Carly took a shower. August played around with Thatcher but didn’t eat anything, then wanted to go find mama. He threw up again, this time just in the toilet. They then went and watched cartoons (some Mickey Mouse superhero thing) for awhile. I went up and sat with him while Carly got tea. He lay on the floor with a stuffed snake and rolled around a bit. After awhile August wanted to go down to mama, but as we were getting up he threw up a third time.
I got him out of his clothes and downstairs to Carly. But then she wasn’t feeling well, and at 8:25 as they sat on the floor near the stairs she threw up, and in the process fainted. I called to Derek and he was about to call 911 when she woke back up. August threw up for a fourth time at 8:40. Derek got Gatorades for them. August chose purple. He threw up for a fifth time after 9:10. He had been standing behind me as I sat across from Carly, his arms around my neck. He backed up, but still got Gatorade all over my shirt and shorts. Derek and family left to go to breakfast and the Zoo. I set up a little bed for August and Carly on the floor, and they watched Sarah & Duck and Smurfs. They nursed, and he threw up for a 6th time at 9:50. Then, Carly threw up and fainted second time at 10:15.
At that point I called Derek and he told me where the urgent clinic was. I drove them up to Immediate Clinic. They processed us quickly, then we waited. A communication glitch of some kind as it took rather awhile for the doctor to actually come in. So not exactly urgent or immediate. August and I went and got the iPad out of the car and played with that a little. He also played with the door and we went to the bathroom at one point and he admired the soap and sink with sensors.
The doctor said Carly would need IV fluids, and since they didn’t do that at the clinic we would have to go on to the ER at Swedish Ballard. Carly observed that this was kind of funny given that in Korea everyplace does IV fluids. It’s like the first thing they do if you’re sick.
Anyway, we drove down to Swedish Ballard. Got us straight into a room and collecting information, etc. I was texting with Glecy, and she was saying everything the nurses and doctors were saying there. They had Carly stand up and her blood pressure and heart rate dropped. Started giving her fluids and a d-dimer test to rule out a pulmonary embolism, and August was getting hungry. He said “Want to get a bop burger or something.” Wrong country for a bop burger. But good that he had an appetite. He had also been munching on the goldfish crackers.
He and I headed out looking for food. We saw a pizza place and he thought that sounded good, so we kept walking to find a place with slices. Ballard is kind of empty of pizza places now, it seems, and the place that I used to know that did slices wasn’t there anymore. We had seen a Sen Noodle Bar and August liked that so we were there at 1:20. We ordered the thin noodles and tofu vegetable broth. He played with and sang about the chopsticks while we waited. He ate a ton, to the point that I slowed him down as I didn’t want him to throw it all up. He also admired the big glass water bottle they had on the table, looking at the sparkles in the water.
We left there at 1:55 and walked back to the hospital. They had given Carly a chest x-ray while we were gone. Both that and the blood test came back negative. After two bags of fluids they had her stand again and her blood pressure was fine. She went for a little walk and was fine as well. Back in the room, August did more talking about the pain chart. It is the standard chart with happy/sad faces attached to a 0 to 10 scale. A couple times he either volunteered or when asked said he was now at a 0, which is the smiley face. They had Carly get a urine sample, and when August saw it he asked what it was and when she told him he said “They test the pee!?” He also got to use the hand sanitizer that they have by the doors. Also, he was keeping track of all the nurses, etc. that came in and out of the room, and asking tons of ‘why’ questions, which we or the nurses were trying to answer.
She was discharged at 3 and we left soon after that. On the way home August fell asleep at 3:30. At 4:15 we tried waking him up, but he kept sleeping, cuddling into us. He sort of woke up with Carly, but then fell back to sleep while nursing. She curled up with him and they both fell asleep.
Glecy came over at 4:45. She brought balloons for the kids (Elmo, Spider-Man, and animals for August, Thatcher, and Kayla) and a pack of red gatorades. Derek and Andrea and kids were back soon after. Carly got up and came down for a bit, then August was up at 6:30. He came down and played with the balloons, taking a liking to the animal balloon in particular. Derek made ramen for Carly and she went back up and rested in bed and ate that.
Derek made a tortilla casserole for dinner, but their kids were exhausted from the day and headed up for a bath and bed. So Glecy, August, and I had a nice dinner together. She made sure he drank a lot of Gatorade. They also had a funny argument over which of them could have mango as their favorite fruit.
I went outside with August while Glecy went up and visited with Carly. We went out the front and got some of Thatcher’s trucks. They were quite dirty, so we took them out back and sprayed them off with the hose. We came back inside at 7:45 when he had to go to the bathroom: “Maybe I have to go to the bathroom from the Gatorade…maybe the poop is from the FOOD.” We drank some Gatorade and ate raspberries, then Glecy left at 8. August was ready to go see mama, but we walked her to the door. I think she suggested doing a couple things and August interpreted them as doing them right now, before going to see mama, and started to get sad. But still he got out a “Bye bye” and “Love you Glecy”. We went up to Carly for awhile.
He and I then went downstairs. Carly came down at 8:50. He seemed kind of surprised and said “Mama went out to bed?” We read part of the finger puppet book on the table, then I took him for a walk from 9:10 to 9:30. We just walked north for a few blocks before he decided he wanted to head back. He walked a little, but mainly rode in the stroller.
Used the bathroom, then we read Oh, Daddy on the iPad for the first time. He asked where Carly was and I said in the bathroom. He asked “The cool bathroom with the soap thing?” Carly made a bread and cheese sandwich and August wanted more. Carly said “Say please” And he sang/said “Please, please, please… I’m singing it.”
Carly was feeling okay with watching him for while. We didn’t know how long he’d be up in the night, and I was exhausted, so I went up to bed. They read Oh, Daddy again and some paper books and she brought him up before 11:30. I got up and kind of expected to stay up with him, but he fell right to sleep and was asleep at 11:40.
Photos. With the snake:
Gatorade and bed on the floor:
