the yuck bug

Last night, for the first time I removed the tired old covers from our sofa and gave them a Woolite washing. This was the highlight of an afternoon and evening in which Will got a little five-hour mystery bug featuring bad sore throat, two bouts of profuse vomiting (the first of which soaked the couch), and then… Recovery. He’s completely fine today, although we’re holed up in the house making sure that the thing really has left his body.

Low-light of the evening was of course looking into Will’s terrified eyes during the second-go-round of throw up (which I was able to catch in a 13X9 pan that has since undergone multiple vigorous washings). The last time Will vomited he was too little to know what hit him, too non-verbal to express his dismay (in fact I’m not even sure he was crying that much). This time post-expulsion he emitted a higher-pitched shriek than I’ve ever heard out of the little guy and then shouted “YUUUCCCK!!!” I think he might have repeated the refrain a couple times: shriek, YUCK, shriek, YUCK – and I was thinking yes, you have captured my feelings about stomach bugs precisely.

By the way, if you’ve got a Pedialyte-resistant drinker like Will, be sure you know about Pedialyte freezer pops. When he was about 15 months old, Will wound up dehydrated in the hospital after a severe case of rotavirus and his stubborn refusal to drink the liquid stuff (we were trying and largely failing to force it down his throat via syringe) was largely responsible for landing us in the hospital. It was there – too late – that I learned about the Pedialyte popsicles that Will loves so much he asks for them when well (we decline these requests of course).