Food Poisoning?

This past week has been filled with emotional, physical, and even spiritual exhaustion. It may have been one of the toughest weeks for me since arriving to Africa. I can say that God has taught me a lot and reminded me that "He directs my paths." Once again I am learning to be still and patient and to allow the Lord to guide me in HIS timing (which is very difficult for me!!). I am so thankful for our sweet families and friends who have called us, emailed us, prayed for us, and encouraged us during this difficult time. You are a blessing and I personally wouldn't have made it through this week without you! So, thank you!

On top of everything else going on, sickness swept through our home at full blast. Micah-man started us off on Tuesday night with a high fever over 102F and fussiness...which we believe is from teething since he has FOUR top teeth coming in all at once (he will soon look like a totally different boy!).  His poor little body was sweating so bad and was on fire! He hadn't been acting like himself for several days as he was much quieter, extra clingy, and was not eating anything. Tylenol and teething medicine every 4 hours has thankfully brought our little one back to life, although his appetite still isn't totally back yet.

Look at how pathetic Micah looked...

Although, I HATED seeing him so down, I'm not gonna lie, I absolutely LOVED all the extra snuggling that he gave us. On Tuesday night, he sat in our arms for over 2 hours, which NEVER happens these days as he is always on the go. Paul eventually encouraged me to put him in his crib around 7:45pm. 

This was Wednesday morning as Micah watched his favorite (and only) Baby Einstein DVD and snuggled with ErnE the Elephant (Jill, you should know where that name comes from! Ha!).

Once Micah recovered, poor Paul was up on Wednesday night (from 12:30am-6am) every 30 minutes with vomiting and/or diarrhea. Before we went to bed, he had mentioned that his stomach hurt, but I didn't think anything of it because that has come to be common problem as we do live in Africa! However, this was the most violent sickness I have ever seen. I felt so bad for him and also so helpless. He ended up sleeping on the bathroom floor for a little while to ensure he would make it to the toilet before another episode hit.

Normally, I would wait to take him to the doctor, but considering the fact that the next morning he was extremely pale, dizzy, and basically depleted of all H2O, I decided we should go ahead and go. Thankfully, our house helper was there to take care of Micah for us as we rushed off to the hospital. It took about an hour to finally see the doctor. After doing a full assessment, he diagnosed Paul with food poisoning. Since Paul was so dehydrated, his blood pressure significantly dropped (about 30mmHgs) from the lying to sitting position (which also explained the dizziness). The doctor decided to take action immediately, so he walked us outside and across the hospital (which they would NEVER do in the States) to the emergency room and started an IV. Over a period of 2 hours, they pumped 2 liters of fluids back into his weak little body. After the first bag had finished, Paul's color was back, he felt a little better, and had much more energy. 

 

Meanwhile, I had felt nauseous all morning, but nothing had ever happened. But of course, leave it to me to throw up into the hospital trash can while sitting in Paul's room. It was extremely embarrassing and oh so gross! Thankfully, that was the course of my sickness-which was nothing compared to Paul's. We both laid on the couch the rest of the day with a dizzy and nauseous feeling. It was not fun! We don't think it was food poisoning after all since the night before we ate the same meal as 15 of our friends, and we were the only ones who got sick. So who knows...anyway, now we are much better and are ready for a new week filled with sweet FAMILY!! We can't wait! :)