Hell Of A Day

To say that Aubrey had a hell of a day is an understatement. She and I were set for a fun weekend in Minneapolis, because she has a routine neurology visit on Monday. I decided to make a weekend of it to give her a break from being stuck inside and some alone time with mommy (we left Seth and Alexander at home). The day started off great! With minimal packing, we each grabbed a backpack and hit the road. We flew out of Minot so it was an easy trip to the airport. We were there in just enough time to breeze through security and grab lunch before we boarded. Aubrey was in a good mood, she seemed so excited as I kept repeating that were going to fly, ride rollercoasters and swim today. Seems like a fairly good day for any 9 year old. She wouldn't eat lunch though. I figured she was just occupied and I brought it on the plane with us. The gate agent was nice enough to upgrade us to the Comfort Plus seats instead of giving us the very rear of the aircraft seats that I had actually purchased. Aubrey still wouldn't eat on the flight though. About 45 min into the flight she started becoming pretty agitated. Seemed odd because it was too early in the day for her to need any meds and the flight was uneventful. She's a seasoned traveler and I didn't expect any issues. During decent she still seemed alright but she was making me hug her and unbuckling her seatbelt constantly. Then it happened.  It was like a bomb exploded in her tiny little belly. Vomit was projecting everywhere. Everywhere. There was literally nothing I could do to help anything other than try to position her a little closer to me so that I had more on me than she did on her. I called for the flight attendant but she showed up with napkins. I needed a water hose and a gallon of Dawn. I soaked up as much as I could so that we could hopefully make it to the bathroom and remove our drenched clothes. Good thing we had those backpacks with us and not checked luggage. The backpacks were soaked too though. Seriously, puke on everything. By the time we got into the bathroom, there was about 2 minutes until landing. Of course, there is some understanding with commercial flight attendants that you might spontaneous combust if you aren't in your seat during landing, so there was some serious banging on the bathroom door where I was inside peeling vomit soaked clothes off of my very confused child. Anyway, I thought the flight attendant was helpful, just not too willing to let us be out of our seats for landing. So, we didn't spontaneously combust because we made it back before touchdown, I just had to ride it out with chunks on my pants still. Of course I waited until everyone else took their sweet time in exiting the aircraft and then I had an opportunity to get up and start cleaning shoes and backpacks so that we could at least walk through the airport without leaving a trail.

Finished up on the plane and made it into the airport. The pilot of our flight met me at the gate to get the rundown of my plans and to see how he could assist. I told him if he could help get one of those assistant carts things, I could handle the rest. He got me one pretty quickly and we headed to the transportation section of the airport. Aubrey laid her head on my shoulder the whole way and I prayed she wouldn't get sick on the driver. We exited the cart and attempted to make out way to the lower level and across to the taxi line. One problem, Aubrey was spent. She didn't't have the energy to walk. Alright, I guess this is about to really be interesting. I put her backpack back on her. The one she was demanding to carry just a few hours earlier. Put my jacket on her, since of course hers was sent to the trash, along with her jeans, shirt, my sweater and her book and I picked her up and marched through that airport with her 80 lbs just limp in my arms. I went to find a taxi and thought to myself that the taxi driver better not dare tell me we smell like revisited yogurt and oatmeal.

We arrived at the hotel and made our way inside. Check in is pretty quick until Aubrey has to lie down on the floor and proceed to vomit some more. Now my coat is ready to see a waste basket. I let her finish, in my coat, take the elevator to the room and figure out what is even happening. I'm sure everyone thought something bizarre was happening. So much going on and almost no words between us. Just me saying a few times, very quietly, "It's okay" and "Aubrey, everything is just fine".

She just laid in the bed, showered and is unable to do much other than get sick for the next few hours. I decide that it's most likely a virus and that I'll let it run its course overnight and only take her to a doctor if it continues into tomorrow.

At the moment she is sleeping soundly, with half of her body wedged under me, as usual.

I'm am hopeful that she wakes up and has those rollercoasters on her mind again tomorrow. Actually, I'd be willing to bet that she wakes up ready to go, as if nothing happened today at all. She's never too interested in letting a bad day repeat itself.