Tummy Bugs

I blame Hong Kong.  Sorry but I do.  I have had at least 3 tummy bugs since I’ve been here that have laid me up in bed each time for a nasty 24 hours.  I never had anything like this back in the UK.  Colds and flu are the illness of choice in Europe, nasty tummy bugs are reserved for Asian life.  Not entirely unexpected I guess.

The first few times I’ve been ill here I was considerate enough to do it at weekends which didn’t inconvenience anyone, particularly the kids, too much.  I just lay about in bed moaning and groaning with killer cramps etc whilst Dan could ensure that he and the kids merrily went about their weekend.

However, last week, mid-week, when Dan was away in Shanghai no less, I was paid a visit from the Tummy Bug Fairy once again.  I started feeling ‘wrong’ early morning, around the time I took Eden to Nursery.  Luckily I had planned a ‘stay-at-home-and-catch-up-on-admin’ day as by lunchtime I was asleep in bed with tummy trouble, hot & cold, achy feelings – ill basically!

Luckily I could send Judy to pick up Eden who was very upset that I hadn’t come to get her and when she got home she gave me the guilt-trip I always get if I don’t collect her that involves her pouting and telling me how much she was looking for me, how she wanted me and not Judy and how much she cried when I wasn’t there.  Thanks Eden.  She doesn’t know how lucky she is that I take her and collect her every day unless I dare to have something else to do.  Most kids certainly do not have their parents collecting them every day round these parts!

Then Judy & Eden went down to get Josh from his school bus for me when it was time for him to arrive home and I made arrangements for him to be taken to his swimming lesson so that I didn’t have to go and Judy could stay here with Eden and sort supper for the kids whilst I continued to languish in the bedroom … and bathroom.

Josh got home from swimming and was delighted to be informed that he was going to get a night off from homework as I just didn’t have the energy to supervise that.  In fact, I couldn’t even stay up long enough to put the kids to bed and quite frankly it probably wasn’t wise to get so close to them anyway.  So I hit the sack (again) before 7pm, leaving Judy to sort the kids out.

Well, that totally finished the kids off.  They were horrified that I was not 100% Mummy and this was the final straw.  They were completely and amusingly disorientated with the order of things and me being in bed before them was horrifying!   I told Judy to make sure she sent Eden in to give me a kiss goodnight when she was all ready for bed.  But like with most instructions I give, she nods vigorously but either completely hasn’t understood the instruction or just forgets about it.  Either way, I didn’t get my kiss goodnight from Eden.

Josh on the other hand popped in every 5 minutes to check I was ok and to see if I needed anything!  I kept calling him in to give messages to pass on to Judy like making sure all the lights and air conditioning units are switched off when she goes to bed since I didn’t want to have to get up again and Dan wasn’t going to be around to do it.

Some time later that evening, I woke up to hear Josh crying in his bed.  It was still only about 8.30pm but Judy had clearly finished for the night.  Needless to say all the lights in the lounge were still on, as was the air con!  Even the light in Eden’s room hadn’t been switched off!  I called Josh in to see what the matter was.  Turns out he was just worried about me, he didn’t like being the last person left awake and he felt like he was the responsible person left in charge of everything!  Bless that boy.  Sometimes his good heart makes mine just burst.  I asked him if he wanted to call Dan, which he did, so I left him calling whilst I went to turn off all the lights etc!  Poor Dan must have thought I was on my death bed when he answered the phone to a sobbing Josh but between the two of us we calmed Josh down, made him realise that I would be just fine and I was just feeling unwell, nothing bad was going to happen.  Boy, talk about a guilty illness!

Thankfully, the next morning, things started to improve.  The kids ran in demanding, “Are you better now?!”  I had a horrible night but the worst was over and I could literally feel myself getting better by the minute.  It was a perfect example of a 24 hour bug.  I still needed Judy to take Josh down to his bus and to take Eden to Nursery but I promised them both that I would collect Eden and get Josh off his bus when he came home and I would be 100% Mummy again by the end of the day.

Jeez, how sympathetic and patient will I be next time one of the kids is ill?  100% Mummy of course, what else?