sick christmas, janelle is my hero

So, on Christmas Eve, my parents had a bunch of the extended family over for a big dinner and some games and nice stuff like that. I ate some generous portions of turkey, mashed potatoes and turnip, stuffing, salad, and delicious Christmas food. Afterwards I had a huge slice of cake for dessert, and then I sat around visiting and playing games with the family. It was nice. I got to reconnect a little bit with my long lost cousin, Josee.

About two hours after dinner, my stomach started acting up. I had to excuse myself three times to have some violent diarrhea. Yeah, not at all pleasant. But otherwise, it wasn't really stopping my enjoyment of the evening until a little later, when my I started getting really clammy and shaking and feeling really nauseous. I tried to ignore it, but the frequent trips to the bathroom for diarrhea weren't making the stomach cramps and nausea go away anymore. It was actually getting much worse and I was worried that I would have to throw up, something I hadn't done in... well, ten years or more. So I started hanging near the washroom, just in case.

I was beginning to feel like I should head for the washroom and, with my stomach making some violent noises, I turned to go... and was passed in the hallway by another celebrant. I didn't want to take any chances so I headed to the bathroom downstairs. Going down the stairs must have disturbed my stomach even more because the contents of my stomach started to come up...

So I dashed to the washroom only to find that it was occupied... I could hear someone singing softly to himself inside. In a panic, I turned around and went into the adjacent office and immediately spewed forth into the garbage can... Well, I had aimed at the garbage can.

Uncle Louis, coming out of the bathroom, saw me and bravely lifted the garbage can to catch the tail end of my upheaval, then sent me into the washroom to clean up. Then, he must have told my dad what had happened because when I came out of the washroom, dad was starting to clean up... because my vomit had gone EVERYWHERE. It was so disgusting. There was so much of it. It was like all the vomit that I hadn't vomited over the past ten plus years had built up and exploded out of me all across my parent's office... Having thrown up, I was feeling a little better, so I sent Dad upstairs and got some paper towel rags to start cleaning up... Janelle came down with a clean shirt for me shortly afterwards and took command of the clean up. Upstairs, the visitors were evacuating.

I was starting to feel sick again. I stuck around until we finished cleaning up... And then I dumped my clothes into the washing machine and headed for the shower. I had more diarrhea before I could make it into the shower. And after that I was so exhausted that showering seemed like an insurmountable task and I ended up standing under the water for what seemed like forever because I didn't have the energy to consider getting out and drying off and getting dressed and going to bed... besides, I was freezing.

I did make it to bed without any significant events, and fell asleep quite quickly. And I think Janelle joined me soon afterwards. By this time, it was well after midnight.

In Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time books, there are these women called Aes Sedai. They're kind of like wizards like Tolkien's Gandalf, but they're women and they have way more drama. Anyways, they've all taken an oath to never use their wizard power as a weapon, so they have these men with them, called Warders, to do all their dirty work. Each Aes Sedai is bonded to her Warder so that when one feels anything, the other feels it too. Anyways, sometimes I think Janelle and I must be bonded the same way because during the night I suddenly woke up with the realization that I was about to vomit again and there was Janelle, already shoving my head inside the bucket so I could vomit in it. Afterwards, I asked her how she knew I was going to throw up. She said she didn't know how it happened, she just knew she had to get around the bed and hold the bucket for me... Janelle is my hero.

Which, in retrospect, makes me a little ashamed of myself. I don't get sick all that often, but when I do, Janelle takes famously good care of me. When Janelle gets sick, I usually just sleep through it. Like one time, I woke up as Janelle was getting back into the bed and she said, "I just threw up." Instead of offering sympathy or anything like that, I said, "In the bed!?" I was horrified, apparently. (Now I know that the odds of Janelle throwing up in the bed are much smaller than the odds of Patrick throwing up in the bed.) And then I just went back to sleep! Can you believe how ridiculous I am?

Anyways, I was up off and on for the rest of the night with diarrhea and then I stayed in bed all Christmas morning. Sometime in the afternoon, I moved to the livingroom couch and lay down under a blanket so we could open presents. (Mom and Dad spoiled us rotten with Christmas gifts.) Afterwards I fell asleep and slept for most of the afternoon. I got up in the late afternoon to supply an answer to some kind of multiple choice question thing. I was feeling a little stronger. I ate some Jello and drank some water. A little later, I read a little and ate some chicken noodle soup... which I pooped out immediately afterwards. By this time my LBM had gone from brown to green to yellow to clear.

Thankfully, the next morning I was feeling quite strong. Strong enough to go to meeting in the morning and to eat some Chinese food in the afternoon and had only minimal diarrhea.

Now I am all better, and back in Thunder Bay. And Janelle is my Hero!