The Virus

It hit L-- first.

Minutes after we awoke in our poorly ventilated, badly cleaned hotel room at the Grand Waterfall Hotel in Anshun, Guizhou province, China, poor L-- peuked all over the bed.  Thank goodness for hotel maids!  She proceeded to lose the rest of the contents of her stomach over the next few hours, some into the hotel bathroom and sometimes into a bucket as we drove from Anshun back to the airport in Guiyang.  The sweet girl proved to be a real trooper, never complaining and diligently drinking a few sips of water every 10-20 minutes.  She slept most of the day, feeling only slightly recovered by bedtime in her own room.

About 1 hour after putting her to bed, it hit me.  My stomach began hurting strongly, such that I needed to lie down curled up in a ball.  My sweet husband fixed the bed and covers, brought me water, and read to me until I began to fall asleep amid the pains in my belly.  I awoke many times overnight for quick trips to the bathroom, culminating in a horrible mess around 3am.  After which, I felt much better - sometimes a good peuk is the best thing.  I fell solidly asleep until awoken by L-- at 7am.

To act as caretaker, Dave skipped work and took the girls to the doctor in the morning.  This bought me about 2 hours of quiet, where I slept fitfully as the phone kept ringing.  Still, when they returned home I felt able to get out of bed.

That's when it hit Dave.  Slower, but still hard.  He went straight to bed, and has only left a few times since.  I haven't heard any peuking, but I know he hasn't eaten anything all day.  We're hoping that he'll have a minor case of it, feeling better in the morning.

Now I just sit on pins and needles, waiting to hear S-- begin retching in the night.  L-- is on strict instructions if she hears any strange noises from her sister's bed.  Luckily, she has shown no sign of impending sickness.  Still, this could be a long night.