I Wasn’t Prepared For This.

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Lizzie Lau

Warning – graphic and gross.

As a single parent, I’m used to doing it all, but I wasn’t prepared for how hard it would be for both of us to be sick at the same time – the night before a flight!  My excuse for being unprepared is that aside from Roseola when she was tiny, and a couple of sniffles/coughs, she’s never been sick.  She’s never been on antibiotics.  I keep kids Advil in the house for the occasional fever or leg pains, peppermint and tea tree oil, along with a thermometer and bandaids.  That’s our medicine cabinet.  I had a bad headache recently, and had to get an Excedrin from our next door neighbor.

Our Medicine Cabinet

Then this happened.

At about 8pm on Tuesday Ebi started throwing up.  She had just gorged on veggie lasagne, so at first I thought she had just eaten too much, and was rejecting it.  But then it happened, again, and again, and again.  Then I started having brutal nausea and diarrhea.  By about 2am she was throwing up bile every 15 minutes, and I knew I couldn’t call 911 so I took her to a 24 hour urgent care center to see a doctor.  She threw up in the waiting room, and I was shaky and panting like I was in labor from the nausea.  A nurse took Ebi’s vitals and put us in a room, where she promptly fell asleep on the table as I paced, and puffed, and tried not to shit my pants.

The doctor reassured me that Ebi was ok, just dehydrated, and wrote a prescription to stop her from throwing up anymore.  She told me to get some kaopectate, and some pedialyte.  The nurses gave her a lollypop, and she sat with them while I used their washroom for the third time.  I didn’t know if I’d be able to get us home, let alone drive to a 24 hour pharmacy in the next town to get the prescription filled.

When we got back in the van, Ebi grabbed the ice water, and even though I told her to take a small sip, she downed it.  I was sure that she’d throw it up while I was driving, and made her hold a container in her lap.  Instead, she started improving, while I got worse.  We made it to the pharmacy, and got home at 4:30 in the morning.  She would only take half a dose of the horrid tasting medicine and wanted nothing to do with the Pedialyte.  She was asleep by 5am, but we were supposed to go to the airport at 10am!!

When I woke up a few hours later, I messaged my friend who was going to drive us to the airport, and she came right over with charcoal capsules and chewable anti-nausea pills for me.  My mom rescheduled our flight, and I spent the entire day in bed, only getting up to feed Ebi and make sure she wasn’t watching anything inappropriate on Netflix.

What did I learn from this ordeal?

I need to stock a few more essentials in the medicine cabinet.  In the same way that flight attendants say that an adult must put on her own oxygen mask before helping the child on with hers, I have to be able to treat my symptoms so I can care for my little one.  I also need someone on my speed dial who can help me in a situation like this when my parents are out of town.

What are your medicine cabinet essentials?

I’m making a list and I’d really like to know.

14 thoughts on “I Wasn’t Prepared For This.”

  1. Wow – that is one of those experiences you can say, “I survived!” to. It reminds me of a time I got the flu in a hotel room traveling for work and did not have my medicine cabinet on hand.

    • Getting sick while traveling is the worst Diane. I have another great story about food poisoning in Las Vegas. I was taken out of the hotel in a wheelchair, puking convulsively into one of those cups one would normally use to collect a coin jackpot in. When I’m sick I want to be on the cool tile of MY OWN bathroom floor, not a hotel one. Ick.

  2. Thank you. You are so right! I can't imagine having to run to the bathroom and leaving my 4 year old alone in her seat, or worse, trying to take her with me. (⊙_◎)

  3. Thank you! I do agree with you that if there is something bad inside, it needs to come out, but that awful nausea I can do without. I'm intrigued by the kiwi juice icies. We make homemade popsicles a lot, I should try kiwi in there. I love kiwi, but my daughter isn't a fan yet, and the little carb freak does get stopped up.

  4. Thank you! I am absolutely going to keep something for nausea. To me, nausea is more unbearable than pain, and I used to get regular migraines so I know a little about pain.

  5. Thank you! I'm following yours on bloglovin too. I really enjoyed your post on blog organization.

  6. Thank you! I need to find something more appealing than Pedialyte. She took one sip and was like, "no thanks". I tried to give her coconut water, too and she gagged.

  7. Oh how awful! The bright side is that it happened when it did. Just hours later and you'd have both been on a plane when the sickness hit. Can you imagine?! Hoping the bathroom isn't occupied when you HAVE TO GO RIGHT NOW THIS VERY SECOND.

    My medicine cabinet has children's Tylenol and Benadryl. Everything else is topical for treating minor cuts and bug bites.

  8. Argh. Sounds awful you poor things.

    Hmm, we've got paracetamol, cough mixture and oodles of allergy medicines and eczema creams. I also find it handy to have some kiwi juice icies in the freezer which are brilliant and gentle for constipation, vicks (great on a piece of cloth and wrapped and put near noses when the kids are asleep to clear blocked noses).

    For me just the occasional panadol. I don't really use anti-nausea/diarrhoea things only cos I think my body must be trying to get rid of something and the anti-nausea/diarrhoea stuff might make the illness last longer?! Maybe?

    Every time my hubby is away I go a bit overboard and stockpile stuff – civil defence things, batteries for torches, make sure the first aid kits are full etc etc haha!

  9. I always keep an anti-nauseant and Tylenol (both suppositories) on hand. Sadly, have required them on more than one occasion.

  10. Just found your blog from the social media mixer link up! Excited to be following along via Bloglovin!

  11. Oh dear, I'm sorry the two of you had to go through this. I hate that feeling of not knowing, and then having nothing to fix whatever is wrong, at home. My medicine cabinet is a HOT MESS! I have all sorts of allergy medicine, natural alternatives for allergy medicine, and vitamins. I think it is wise to have Pedialyte on hand. I need to take my own advice there, but it's true. They have packets of Pedialyte or electrolytes, I imagine those are better to have on hand than the liquid form.
    I'm a believer in Tea Tree Oil too.
    All the best-
    XOXO

  12. I have so been in your shoes!! I was a single parent for awhile (I am married now), but it is SO, so hard. I so keep the essentials in stock now… Tylenol, Pedialyte/Gatorade, etc. I am glad you were able to get your flight moved… not fun!

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