My Christmas Adventure

or aka
SO Glad This Didn't Happen When He Was FIVE!
(check out my art journal attempt under this post)

Let me tell you all a story about my Christmas! It's a doozy. I promise. Four days before Christmas, our 19 year old son got so sick, we had to call an Ambulance for him. He'd just gotten home from a Disney Cruise, and we were concerned about Norwalk Virus. He was VIOLENTLY ill. It was awful. I had to stay a bit away from him because we didn't want me to get it. I am a bit immuno-compromised. Not a big deal, but it can be, if I get something like this. So... hubby stepped up and took care of our son Dana. Well... here in Canada... if our doc is off, we have something called Tele-health. You call and speak to a Nurse, and they give you advise. her advice? Get him to the hospital pronto, and she would call the ambulance. So.. off he went.

And I cleaned the house with bleach. Lots and lots of bleach. I washed doors, and walls, and handles, and taps, and toilets.. and ... well, you get it.

Yeah... you KNOW what I'm about to say next, right?

3:00 or 3:20 am. Christmas morning, I was done wrapping, presents were under the tree, and voila.. I noticed stockings hung with care, and filled. What's this? Hubby is downstairs saying... "Where's the gravol?" Huh? It's CHRISTMAS MORNING in a few hours. Surely  not? "Well... I'm not sure", he says... but it feels suspicious.   So.. we'd gone out for our usual Christmas Eve chinese buffet, so that could be it, I reasoned with myself.  My own tummy was upset. Not a ton.. but it was upset. I'm now thinking... Geez.. I betcha I'm just scared. There's nothing wrong with me. I repeated that to myself as I got my jammies on. 15 minutes had passed, and I grabbed a garbage can with a bag in it, and brought it to the family room with me. (I didn't want to go into that diseased bed with hubby).  Oh oh. I'm sick, I thought. I'm really sick! I better take Gravol. I lay down... took gravol x 2 and ugh. It began.

Just after 4:00 am, my son came downstairs... and no, it wasn't in excitedment to see what Santa had brought. Nope. My 19 year old son was asking for gravol for his dad, who was pretty sick. He's concerned about Dad, cuz he knows how sick HE was. But he's not scared. Just thinking well.. this isn't a great Christmas!  That is.. until he saw me. I said "We have no more gravol!"  oh oh.

And that was when he saw I was throwing up too. And he got scared. As I said... NOBODY wants me sick. When a person is immuno-compromised.. what makes a normal person sick, can make them .. ok.. just much more so than the *normal* person.  Now, the poor boy is running back and forth between his Dad and me. And our friends? (we have NO family near us) They are away... or with little ones. We've moved to the country recently, and don't know our neighbours enough to interrupt Christmas. So.. he contacts one of our oldest friends who moved away.. but who is in town visiting. Joanne Martini Pezzano runs around town looking for the ONE pharmacy that is open. Several hours have gone by since we ran out of gravol. She comes with some fresh supply, Bless her heart. What a godsend friends are at times like this. Our son Dana commutes to University in Toronto, so he never went past his first license. Here in Ontario it's a graduated license system, and he never went past having to drive with someone else in the car, cuz he wasn't driving in Toronto. (most don't, cuz transit is easier). So he couldn't drive without us in the car. He's getting his full license this month now. He doesn't want that to happen again. lol

Finally... around 5pm, Christmas evening, Gary and I get up and sit in the livingroom for present opening. I had made my way from the couch in the family room... to the couch in the living room where the tree is. I was still throwing up. I continued to be sick until the next day. It took me 4 MORE days to be up and around. New Years Eve I was up finally. But immediately got sick again. New Years Day I was back down.

We are finally up and around, but it was NOT a very good Christmas. Thankfully, our 19 year old son Dana wasn't 5. He was able to manage thru Christmas. But here he was... just us. No family around.. .and stuck out in the country Christmas day... with sick throwing up parents, and that's it .. for company.
sigh. I won't post pics, cuz the only ones taken were by me, as I lay with my head down on the couch, sick, and my poor boy looks stressed and unhappy. When they are 19, they don't want you posting that.

I was SO ready for 2012.  Are you ready for the positive side of this???  LOL  Here it is!  We've already gotten this nasty.. so we don't have to live in fear of getting it now. It's OVER! :)))

What a Christmas! Wash your hands. There's some nasty viruses going around!

One of my Resolutions is to work on an Art Journal this year. So.. I made one to start with. And I attempted my first page. Not a lot of journaling. But this next page will have more. I got lost in the colour and the material. I'm going to do another page tomorrow... and begin to work on the cover.  Here it is. What do you think? Am I way off base? Free for all? thoughts?