A Very Long Night

Well, we almost made it five weeks without having to take Ben to the hospital. Almost. We've had the flu going around our family, and for the rest of us, we just feel sick. Ben ends up in the hospital. He started throwing up Sunday night, and kept feeling sick on Monday. By Monday night he had a fever, and we had to run him up the emergency room (standard procedure when he has a fever). We didn't get there until after 9:00, and the ER was just full of kids. I knew we were in for a long night. They got Ben right back and got him started on an IV to keep him hydrated, but we didn't even see the doctor until after midnight. I didn't sleep much on Sunday night because I was up with Ben, so the later we got in the night at the ER, the more exhausted I became. Finally at 1:30am I went out and told them they needed to make a decision about whether they were admitting him or not, because I was getting too tired to drive home. They decided they were going to let him go, but by that point I was so tired I could hardly see straight, so they had to admit us anyway. By the time we finally got up to our room it was 3:30am. I had to get Ben settled, and by the time I finally laid down it was a quarter to four. But then I was so keyed up I couldn't fall asleep (and the fact that I was laying on one of those awful bed chair things really didn't help much). I finally fell asleep sometime around 4:30am, only to be woken up at 5am from Ben crying because he wanted to go home. I got into bed with Ben, and then I think we both finally slept for a couple of hours.

The happy news is that Ben is feeling much better. Now we just need to keep him healthy for the rest of the winter, somehow.