Hospital food sucks

Quick, what is the most cliche jokes that comedians fall back on when they have a dead audience? The relatable hospital/airline/prison food sucks jokes, of course! The jokes are easy to relate to for the audience and might get a chuckle that can revitalize a set.

Except for this week,  the joke was on me or rather the vomit was on me. 

It started on Saturday. While I was looking at new places to live, my daughter was slowly starting to feel worse. By supper, she was telling me her stomach hurt and not long after she ate, the vomiting began. I assumed that this was just going to be another annoying stomach bugs that spread to everyone in the house, sticks around for 24 hours then goes away. Except it didn't.

By Sunday night, my daughter had barely managed to keep down water and was feeling even worse. I wasn't worried at this point, though, because it had only been a day. Maybe this bug needed an extra day to run its course.

Monday morning, I took her to the pediatrician for her normal check up and brought up the vomiting. He didn't seem concerned no prescribed a medication to help my daughter not feel nauseated.

Tuesday came and I saw that my daughter was not getting better. In fact, she was getting worse.at this point, I started to worry. Shouldn't she be feeling even a little better by now? At 7 am, I took her to the emergency room and watched as they pumped fluids and medication through a needle in her tiny hand. we left a few hours later, my daughter feeling slightly better. 

On Wednesday though, she was even worse. I was following everything the hospital said to do and she just got worse. By the afternoon, I rushed her back to the emergency room. She was listless, complaining that her stomach was hurting and unable to keep down even a sip of water. Two IV bags later, the doctors were concerned. My daughter had not needed to use the bathroom yet. They ordered scans on her belly and more medication and fluids. Then they decided she needed to stay in the hospital.

My stomach dropped. See I am terrified of hospitals so the thought of my only child staying the night in one alone was out of the question. Funny enough, she was far calmer than I was about the whole situation. I should have been calm. My daughter was getting the professional help she needed to get better, help that I couldn't provide. But instead, my stomach was in knots because I was helpless to make her feel better. 

All night, I envisioned how we could have avoided this. Where I failed as a mother. I should have insisted she stay for treatment on the first ER visit. I should have brought her back sooner. I should have brought her when she kept getting worse on Monday. If only I had done something a little different, then my baby girl would not be lying on the cold hospital bed across from me with an IV in her arm. How dare I let her get that bad? 

By Thursday morning, she was feeling much better. She had three bags of IV fluids and finally needed to use the restroom. Think about that. Her little body was so dehydrated that it took 1500 ml of saline for her to need to pee. 

She was released that afternoon. On Friday she said she felt better. She hadn't vomited in 24 hours. I made the decision to take her to summer camp. Because I am a bit neurotic concerning my daughter, I called the daycare 10 times on Friday to make sure she was ok. Although she didn't eat much, she didn't get sick again. Today, she ate. Well more like grazed- a few bites of one item, a few more of a different one. But she was better.

For the life of me, I never want to see my baby girl lying on a hospital bed so sick like that again. I know I wasn't the easiest person to deal with on Friday because I was worried about my child. Maybe I should have taken Friday and been more cautious, but sometimes when you are the only person available to provide an income and care for a child, you have to make those decisions.