Monday sick day

Yes,  I had a lovely weekend, until Sunday morning. I woke up with horrible abdominal cramps and gas. Nothing happened, so I made a breakfast of oatmeal and coffee.

All Hades broke loose, literally and figuratively. I heard a horrible growl in my stomach. That's when the diarrhea started. Whatever I ate at the fast food joint (lovingly known as Jack in the Crack --chicken) or the swanky seafood house near the fancy hotel district (scallops), did me in. After that, it was body aches, fever and diarrhea after every drink. I stayed hydrated by drinking, then running into the bathroom once an hour. Gotta love foodborne illness, or at least that's what I suspect. Needless to say, I won't be volunteering to make anything for anyone for dinner or dessert for a while, just in case.

Since I felt lousy, I actually did something I am loathe to do: take a nap. It helped, but I eventually had to take Tylenol so my fever did not get above 102. Thankfully, it broke overnight and I've been afebrile all day. The nursing supervisor actually answered my call and my boss my text when I called.

I rested today. I felt bad in the morning, but got progressively better. My stomach is still undecided, but I'm sure when I get hungry enough, my appetite will be normal again.

Heck of a way to spend a Monday. More fun to come...stay tuned.

Happy Fathers' Day

"My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me." - - Jim Valvano

It comes the same weekend every year, but never gets as much interest. That holiday is Fathers' Day.

Since I volunteered to take a father's place at church this weekend, my own celebration was broken up. (My husband agreed to it). I got up early and made Dahey and Bubba a breakfast casserole. The route to a man's heart may be through his stomach, but for these two, there had better be meat and cheese on the way, too. (Sorry vegetarians! I try all the time and sometimes I'm successful!)

I took care of my church volunteer obligation, then came home. We ate leftovers for lunch, and we went out for dinner at a swanky steakhouse nearby. Bubba wasn't thrilled that there were few kids there but he got used to it, and enjoyed the food.

We left and got dessert at home since the two wanted to watch the NBA finals. Dahey's father would have enjoyed that--he loved basketball. My father would have just taken the pie and gone on his merry way. Bubba was happy to see Cleveland win.

For all of you nurses out there, who are dads and are working, I hope your organization treats you right. Some do make things better when working these holidays. If you are working and can't see your father, I hope you can soon.

For the rest of us, who wish our fathers were here today, I wish you peace. I feel your pain everyday. I am so glad I have lots of happy memories with my dad, who loved us, pies (and just about any sweets) and being a dad. I'll never forget him.

More later.

Oh, the tummy!

Maybe I should have read this article before I took some naproxen before bed last night without eating.

Suffering....

International affairs

I have always said I have an international stomach. There isn't much food I don't like, so lots of my nursing school friends (from many countries of origin) used to drag me to go out with them to some of the ethnic restaurants close to Private U.


Ethiopian? Check. Pakistani? Check. Nepalese? Check. Vietnamese? Check. I've been just about everywhere.

In an effort to broaden Bubba's horizons, we took him to a Vietnamese restaurant, since he really likes Chinese food. He enjoyed it immensely, especially twirling noodles in his soup with chopsticks. He's been to a Chinatown nearby and loved it, so we guessed correctly that Vietnamese might work.

On the way out the door, we saw a sign for a lunar new year concert. Bubba remembered what that was from social studies class and chimed in, "Mom, I'm going to get some money, right?"

The perils of raising a kid who likes social studies...

Knotted stomachs

Just happen to be the condition of the week among the staff. People are calling in due to variations of this theme: GI distress due to not drinking enough fluids and eating enough fiber, morning sickness, and good old bad gall bladders. A little extra stress with the transition of our nurse manager to his/her new job is not helping matters much, either.

So glad I get some vacation really soon. I plan on vegetating in place and enjoying the spring weather which is coming our way.

Stay tuned...

A nugget of a poem

Warning: if you have a weak stomach or are in the middle of your lunch break, come back later. Otherwise, continue, as you have been warned...

The Underside of Nursing always has an interesting ditty or two, but since some of the nursing bloggers I've been reading have been talking about bowels in one form or another lately, here's an ode to that potassium-ridding drug, Kayexalate.

Reminds me of Mr. G. Wonder how long he spent on the throne after leaving Saintarama with a going on 7 K a little over a month ago.

I'm always going to be wondering about the end of some of the stories I end up being part of as a nurse.

More later. Happy weekend all!