1.  Anna Grace remains ill.  Quite ill.  I took her to the E.R. last night because she was dehydrated.  Little small town E.R. has only one doc.  A doc who is afraid of kids.  This happens.  Somebody prefers not to deal with kids, etc but usually they have somebody else to trade off with in an E.R.  Not here.  One doc operation.  He tried to tell me she wasn’t dehydrated.  I pointed out the reasons why she was, he realized I knew what I was doing.  He then agreed she was dehydrated but didn’t want to give her any fluids.  By that time I had decided that I would just continue to monitor her since he really wasn’t comfortable taking care of a kid (he was shaking… not kidding… actually shaking).  I kept pushing fluids here at home and watching her closely.

2.  When we left the E.R. it became clear that Anna Grace has given me her boogies and I began to throw up and get all the body aches.  For those of you keeping track that’s 2 major GI bugs for me since we’ve arrived in Washington 2 months ago.

3.  Anna Grace has been refusing most fluids and almost all food.  This afternoon I was finally able to get her to take fluids consistently by giving them to her with her medicine dropper (holds a teaspoon of liquid at a time).  With this dropper if she tries to refuse the gatorade I can tackle her just as I do if she refuses to take her medicine.

4.  Dana stayed home today to take care of Anna Grace and me.  I didn’t think I could manage her with me being sick as well.  Now Dana is sick.   For those of you keeping track that is now 2 GI bugs for Dana as well.

5.  For some reason once I finished ridding myself of my most recent meals I began coughing, like I had a cold or something.  Now I’ve lost my voice.  I sound like a 3 pack a day smoker who’s been at it for 30 years.

6.  For the first time in 5 days today I actually heard Anna Grace giggle and I saw her smile.  She has done nothing but lay in my lap or on the couch for 5 days.  Considering that I usually have a difficult time keeping up with her, this level of lethargy has been a bit alarming to me.  So, today’s smile and giggles were music to my ears.

7.  Anna Grace saw the pediatrician today who changed her over to a new medication (for her ear infection) since the previous one wasn’t quite working.  The pediatrician also asked me if I got absolutely nowhere in the E.R. last night.  When I told her that they were a bit afraid of Anna Grace and that no fluids were given she said it is a recurrent issue with kids in our local E.R.   So, if AG ever needs to go to the E.R. again I’ll just drive her to Auburn or Tacoma or somewhere else.  Live and learn.

8.  I actually did some knitting today.  I’m about 2/3 done with the sleeves to the cut out cardi.  I’ve also been able to spin for a little bit.  Anna Grace actually sat beside me yesterday while I did some spinning.  This just confirmed how sick she was since she wasn’t trying to play with the wheel (her usual response to me spinning).

That’s about it.  I’ll try to get back to my usual posting routine once we start to feel better around here.  Thanks for all of y’all’s emails wishing Anna Grace well.  It means a lot!

Toodles!