Pukefest '12

We have been extremely fortunate in terms of sickness with Madi. She has only been sick less than a handful of times, and even then they have been pretty mild colds with nothing much more than a runny nose or cough. They've never slowed her down. She has always remained the rambunctious little ball of energy that she is through any illness that she's had.
Which is why I was caught totally and completely off-guard yesterday when she puked on the car ride home from our day at the splash pad, and continued puking well into the early hours of this morning. She puked up just about everything that she ate yesterday, then continued to vomit any water or Pedialyte that we tried to give her. She puked on herself, her car seat (both of them!) me, multiple blankets, pillows...I thought having kids entailed a lot of laundry. Having sick kids is beyond what I could have imagined. On top of the vomiting she was totally lethargic, dozing off and then waking. This is a child who will not stop, no matter how tired she is, until you make her go to sleep.
Despite the fact that I don't have much experience with childhood illness (I consider myself very lucky) I knew all along it was a mild bug that would pass, but seeing her so unlike herself - pretty much the opposite of everything she usually is: healthy, happy, energetic and playful - was so heartbreaking. All she did was lay in my arms and when Drew and my mom decided to take her to the ER due to the risk of dehydration, I cried because I was so sad that I was going to be apart from her. I wanted to go, but I didn't want to bring Mya to a germ infested waiting room for God-knows how long it would have taken for Madi to get in.
Luckily it didn't take to long. They gave her some Zofran and then tried Pedialyte 20 minutes later to see if it would stay down. Luckily it did. And everything else has since. She didn't have much of an appetite through the day today, but she did get better and better, especially after a 3 hour nap this afternoon. The children's Gravol and Pedialyte helped - two things that I will have on hand from now on.
Who knows what this bug was. She could have eaten something bad (I've gone over and over what it could have been but can't put my finger on anything obvious) or she could have picked something up at the public pool yesterday. We were also at Shopper's Drug Mart where there are any number of sick people at any given time. What I do know, is that I will be better prepared next time and have children's medicine and Pedialyte on hand  for those times when Drew is unreachable. Thank goodness for my mother!